It’s been almost six years since a surge in Black voter participation helped make Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock the first two Georgia Democrats elected to the U.S. Senate since the early 2000s.
Black men are expected to play a decisive role in the outcome of Ossoff’s reelection bid against Republican challenger Mike Collins in November. The race could decide the balance of power between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. A victory for Ossoff could determine whether there’s enough electoral will in Washington to thwart President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the rest of his second term.
The 39-year-old incumbent, who got his start in politics interning for the late John Lewis, recently stressed to Capital B Atlanta that he’s been addressing the issues disproportionately impacting Black male voters since taking office.
He listed accomplishments including obtaining record funding support for HBCUs, putting a national limit on corporate homeownership, investigating slumlord abuse of Black Section 8 recipients, and backing a $35 cap on insulin prices for Medicare recipients.
He also secured a nearly $20 million grant for majority-Black Thomasville, Georgia, to replace aging infrastructure, and helped limit out-of-pocket prescription expenses for seniors on fixed incomes.
“We’ve directed federal resources to predominantly Black parts of Georgia that have been neglected for decades,” Ossoff told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday.
“I’ve stood up for military families abused by defense contractors, investigated civil rights abuses in our federal prison system, taken on big tech companies that put kids at risk, investigated and exposed abuse in Georgia’s foster care system,” he said. “I will continue to be a champion for my constituents. I will continue to fight and take on those who put my constituents at risk.”
To better understand the concerns of Black men, Capital B Atlanta asked local voters to share their questions for Ossoff. Questions and responses have been edited for clarity and length.
Lavon Bratton, 32, Stonecrest
Question: What are [you] going to do to change [Trump’s] DEI policy?
Answer: Senator Warnock and I together have been pushing back and fighting the Trump administration’s overtly racist anti-diversity crusade. It’s obscene that the far right have tried to make inclusion an unspeakable word. I want to point you to how I’ve been fighting for Thomasville, Georgia, where the Trump administration canceled a grant we helped them secure to build a new health clinic and upgrade their sewer and water systems because the Trump administration called it DEI — and we all know what the Trump administration meant by that.
The Trump administration didn’t want these funds to go to a majority-Black community. I’ve been pushing back as the Trump administration has made war on Black entrepreneurs and small-business owners who have been able to get opportunity at the airport, thanks to the legacy of Maynard Jackson making Atlanta an economy that supports the creation of Black generational wealth.
And let me also just say that I’m running against a known bigot. Congressman Mike Collins praised young men who were mocking a Black woman with monkey sounds on a college campus. Congressman Mike Collins suggested throwing immigrants to their deaths out of helicopters. Congressman Mike Collins voted to honor Confederate pro-slavery generals. Congressman Mike Collins has had a neo-Nazi propagandist based on his property. Congressman Mike Collins’ office was briefing prominent white supremacists on its efforts supporting a Holocaust denier. Congressman Mike Collins is a known bigot who has no business serving in either chamber of the United States Congress.
(Capital B Atlanta reached out to Collins for comment, but did not receive a response before publication.)
Mike Johnson, 36, Midtown
Question: What do you plan on doing that’s going to directly benefit the Black community here in Atlanta? I want a direct plan.
Answer: Tangibles, tangibles, tangibles — not just promises. What I will continue to do is to direct federal resources to communities in our state that have long been neglected. Look at the funds I delivered for Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale to remove lead pipes from the drinking water system in College Park for YMCAs and rec centers on the south side.
The record funding — a quarter of a billion dollars plus — [that] I’ve delivered for Georgia’s historically black colleges and universities, the work I’m doing to lower people’s health insurance premiums when the Trump administration has doubled them for more than a million Georgians, the work I’m doing to ban health insurance companies from denying or delaying needed care — all of these things directly help Black men, the Black community, and the entire state.
Xavier Palin, 37, Buckhead
Question: What can [you] do to improve public transit?
Answer: I have delivered more than $300 million for transit in Georgia, including $25 million for the new hub at South DeKalb on Candler Road, $20 million to upgrade the Gwinnett Place Transit Center, funds for bus rapid transit, $65 million for the new trail to connect the Beltline and the Flint River Trail. That’s before Trump canceled that funding. We’re fighting to restore it. I will continue delivering record resources for transit and public transportation in Georgia.
Rob Wagner, 37, Midtown
Question: How [can the federal government] get more involved with housing?
Answer: It was my investigation that uncovered that large out-of-state corporations owned 30% of single-family rentals in metro Atlanta. And we passed that bill to start cracking down on out-of-state corporations buying up housing in Georgia and driving families and homebuyers out of the market.
I’ve also investigated abusive landlords, held human rights subcommittee proceedings to hear from renters and tenants about the abuse that they’ve faced, and I’ve delivered funding to build new affordable housing, including in Lovejoy and Browns Mill.
I’ll continue to hold corporate landlords accountable, and I’ll continue to crack down on these out-of-state investors who are buying up homes by the tens of thousands in Georgia.
Lamond Clemons, 54, Conyers
Question: What are you looking to do in the Senate for the homeless?
Answer: Again, politicians need to talk about what they’ve done tangibly, not just what they’ve said. For example, I appropriated $1.8 million to the Gainesville Salvation Army to help them upgrade their homeless shelter.
I appropriated a quarter of a million dollars to the United Way of Central Georgia to upgrade their homeless shelter. I delivered $31 million from the VA to support housing and homeless homelessness prevention for Georgia veterans. I also want to highlight the work I did investigating abuse in Georgia’s foster care system, because we’ve seen that failures in the foster care system is a pipeline to homelessness for young people. The investigation that I led into Georgia’s foster care system revealed that hundreds of children in the care of the state were likely sex trafficked while they were in the care of the state.
And then finally, let me just say that all of the resources I’m delivering to build more affordable housing are also crucial for the prevention of homelessness, because it’s when folks can’t afford rent or can’t afford a home that they’re most likely to become homeless.
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