US senator with Australian ties now a presidential frontrunner

The polling booths have barely been packed down after the US midterm elections, but Washington is already looking ahead.

In less than two years, Americans will vote in the next president, and speculation is rife over who each party will choose for their ticket.

Discussions playing out in the public sphere suggest the Republican contest will come down to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice-President JD Vance.

The story from the Democratic camp is amorphous, with party insiders suggesting more than two dozen Democrats are considering runs for the White House.

But more and more, one name is rising to the top: Georgia senator Jon Ossoff.

Meet the half-Australian young gun, known for getting under US President Donald Trump's skin.

A surprise contender

Days before the election day, an AtlasIntel opinion poll asked Democratic voters who they would support in the party primaries for the 2028 election.

The answers showed Senator Ossoff holding a tight lead of less than one percentage point over representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It is a major shift from one year ago, when the senator did not even warrant a mention in presidential contender forecasts.

The 39-year-old has become a rising star in the party in recent months, due to his unusually direct language when criticising Mr Trump as corrupt and unfit for office.

And freshly re-elected in Georgia, a swing state that will be an important battleground in 2028, Democrats are seriously weighing his presidential potential.

Still, Senator Ossoff has denied planning a bid for the Oval Office in recent public appearances, saying in an October debate that he had "zero interest" in running for office.

A new attack model

While Senator Ossoff's unabashedly aggressive approach initially struck some Democrats as a gamble, it quickly became a successful attack model.

At carefully produced rallies, the senator delivered withering critiques of the president, with young aides quickly cutting the video and posting them online in real time to reach younger voters, earning him the moniker of "The First Extremely Online Senator".

"I don't think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man [retired navy captain and current senator Mark Kelly], who embodies American heroism," Senator Ossoff said in one video, filmed at a campaign event with Kelly.

Mr Trump had previously suggested Senator Kelly be imprisoned and hanged over a social media video saying troops were not required to carry out illegal commands.

"While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his [Iran] war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings," Senator Ossoff said.

"He golfs and trades stocks … he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie [Harp] on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the amir of Qatar."

The comments earned the ire of the White House, prompting Mr Trump to compare the Georgia senator's appearance to that of comedy character Pee-wee Herman.

Senator Ossoff has also mocked the president's sons and son-in-law for their international business deals, called for an end to the Iran war and the rolling back of many of Mr Trump's tax cuts, and blasted the president's tariffs.

The Jewish senator has carefully navigated the politics of the Middle East, saying he values Israel's security and "the lives of innocent Palestinians".

Roots Down Under 

Senator Ossoff may be deeply entrenched in the US political sphere, but he has strong ties with Australia, too.

His mother, Heather Fenton, was born in Sydney. Her mother hailed from Brisbane and her father from Footscray, Melbourne, he told a TMZ reporter who tracked him down in a Capitol Hill carpark in July.

Ms Fenton moved to Atlanta, Georgia, when she was 23 and co-founded New Power PAC, which works to increase the number of women in public office in the state.

"My mother is an immigrant and the first in her family to graduate college," he wrote on social media in 2020.

"She became a US citizen, a successful entrepreneur and an accomplished advocate for the advancement of American women."

Senator Ossoff previously held Australian citizenship, but has renounced it, according to reporting by Nine newspapers in 2021.

When asked by TMZ what Americans could take from Australians, Senator Ossoff said: "I think Vegemite is a little bit of an acquired taste but … there is a laid-back culture, I think, in Australia. We get a little bit wound-up sometimes over here."