What Is It About Jon Ossoff?

David Graham: “Ossoff’s win is a testament to his deftness as both senator and candidate. In office, he has emphasized constituent services but also mastered the art of getting under the skin of Republican officials during Senate hearings, without ever seeming ruffled himself. On the stump, his campaign showed an acute sense of how to use media, even producing a new coinage—the ‘Ossoff angle’—to describe the upward camera perspective that his team worked to produce.”

“He paired these good visuals with a knack for the sound bite. In the most famous instance, in August, he slyly said that Trump ‘doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie.’ Although he omitted her last name, the moment made the president’s assistant Natalie Harp—who was previously familiar only to political reporters and political junkies—into a prominent figure. The ensuing news cycle was both damaging and distracting to the White House. As the youngest senator, Ossoff has shown a mastery of short-form video that few of his peers can dream of.”