Balancing Trump criticism and bipartisanship, Democrat Jon Ossoff walks a fine line in Georgia

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — There's the Jon Ossoff who built his political career around criticizing Donald Trump.

There's also the Ossoff who works with Republicans, advancing the interests of Georgia's farmers and military bases.

But they’re the same guy — a 38-year-old first-term U.S. senator from Georgia who says his race will be the “main event” in 2026. He's the only Democratic senator seeking reelection from a state Trump carried in winning last year's presidential election.

Ossoff is among many Democrats looking for the right way to challenge Trump and Republicans after the GOP won the White House and congressional majorities in 2024. While some Democrats may be eyeing the presidency in 2028, Ossoff has a more immediate goal -- retaining his seat in Georgia, where Republicans hope to pad their narrow Senate majority.

Still, midterm elections typically favor the party opposing the president. And Republicans in recent years have often nominated candidates seen by moderates as as too extreme, including in Georgia.

The senator got some good news Monday when Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, likely the strongest candidate the GOP could have nominated, announced he wouldn't run.

Ossoff, meanwhile, picks his spots carefully, challenging Trump vigorously on some fronts while still professing a willingness to work with him. In recent weeks, he launched his reelection bid with a blistering critique of Trump's second term, weathered criticism from Democrats that he wasn't fighting hard enough, and touted patriotism and service to potential military academy students at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta.

Ossoff says there’s no clash between bipartisanship and fighting Trump, but in this still-early stage of the second Trump administration, he's clearly looking to strike the right balance. Georgia voters returned to Trump in 2024 after narrowly choosing Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and giving Democrats control of the Senate by electing Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in twin runoffs.

“My first and highest obligation is to deliver for the state of Georgia,” Ossoff said in an interview with The Associated Press, vowing to pursue “opportunities to work with this administration or to continue to partner with Republicans in Congress.”

But Ossoff isn't new to criticizing Trump. He became a resistance hero in his unsuccessful 2017 run in the first special election of Trump's first term, setting a then-record for spending on a House seat.

“We have never seen a president try to wield the federal government to crush his critics and political adversaries. That is something new in American history, and it is, in my view, un-American,” Ossoff said. “And it’s something that should chill us to the bone, no matter our politics, no matter our policy preferences.”

At a recent town hall, some voters pressed Ossoff to more directly confront Trump.

“Do you think that there’s nothing going to be done?" asked Kate Denny, of Avondale Estates. ”No. Do something more."

While Ossoff told Denny that “there is no doubt that this president’s conduct has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment,” he also said he has “no magic button” to stop Trump. The only reliable solution, he said, is reclaiming the House and the Senate.

Ossoff said he won't change his approach.

“I am who I am, and I speak directly, I speak candidly," Ossoff said. "I also think before I speak.”

Democrats had hoped 2021 victories by Ossoff and Warnock signaled the party's resurgence in Georgia. But Kemp cruised to reelection in 2022 over Democrat Stacey Abrams. Warnock needed a runoff to dispatch the flawed Senate campaign of former football star Herschel Walker.

In 2024, Georgia voters favored Trump over then-Vice President Kamala Harris by 2 percentage points. Many Republicans bet Ossoff's election in 2020 was a fluke and aim to keep him from running to the center as Warnock did in 2022.

“Ossoff's far-left politics only worked in specific moment of GOP chaos,” Republican political consultant Dan McLagan said. “Now it's like he's showing up at a Lee Greenwood Fourth of July concert with a ‘Free Palestine’ sign and a Che Guevara T-shirt. Everyone has already seen him, and it's too late to change his clothes.”

Even within his own party, Ossoff's course hasn't always been smooth. Some Black Democrats took offense at his effort to oust U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams of Atlanta as chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. The party changed its rules to make the position paid and full time, with Williams stepping down before Democrats elected a new chair Saturday. Ossoff said he asked Williams to quit, saying that to progress “Georgia Democrats need a statewide party organization with nationally unparalleled professionalism, resources and capabilities.”

The first Jewish senator from Georgia, Ossoff also upset many Jewish voters when he supported a November resolution by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, to block the sale of some weapons to Israel.

The vote earned Ossoff a public letter of rebuke from many Jewish institutions, including The Temple, the historic Atlanta synagogue where he had his bar mitzvah. A second letter, first reported by The New York Times, was sent privately by top Jewish donors to Kemp urging him to seek Ossoff's seat.

In April, Ossoff voted against a new set of Sanders resolutions, and tensions have eased, said Alli Medof, a Democrat long active for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel group. “The temperature is lowered, but the trust level is not yet restored," she said.

Ossoff touts his success in getting India to lower tariffs on Georgia-grown pecans and has cultivated voters in Republican areas beyond Atlanta. He enthusiastically backed Biden's incentives to build electric vehicles and has competed with Kemp to take credit for investments.

Ossoff walks a finer line on immigration. He voted for the Laken Riley Act, which requires detention of immigrants who are in the U.S. illiegally and are accused of theft and violent crimes. The law is named after a slain Georgia nursing student whose case Republicans publicized. Ossoff said that Americans “deserve secure borders” and that “the Biden administration failed in its border policies," but he also says immigration policy must be "humane.”

Republicans have already launched ads attacking Ossoff's opposition to a bill barring schools from allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports. Ossoff calls that an obsession most voters don't share.

One of Ossoff's trademark moves is to announce investigations — a callback to his job producing documentaries examining corruption before he ran for the Senate.

“I think that in some ways, Congress has neglected now for decades the vigorous use of our oversight authorities," Ossoff said at the town hall.

One investigation led to the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which mandated prison inspections and created an ombudsman to investigate complaints. But not all reform moves have succeeded. After announcing a bipartisan agreement in July to ban congressional stock trading — a major theme of Ossoff's winning campaign against Republican Sen. David Perdue — the deal went nowhere.

With Kemp out, it's unclear who Ossoff's Republican opponent will be. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one possible Republican candidate.

Greene could be Ossoff's dream opponent, and he has seemed to invite her entry — betting the north Georgia firebrand would repel swing voters who couldn't stomach Walker.

Either way, the race won't be cheap. Ossoff raised $11.2 million in 2025's first quarter and is already spending heavily.

Ossoff declines to discuss possible opponents but says he's ready.

“I welcome any challenger," he said, “and I am more than prepared for any challenger.”

Follow the AP's coverage of Sen. Jon Ossoff at https://apnews.com/hub/jon-ossoff.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., poses for a portrait during an event at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., poses for a portrait during an event at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff poses for a portrait during an event at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., poses for a portrait during an event at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., speaks during an interview at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., poses for a portrait during an event at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.

Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.

A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)