Lack of affordable housing is “probably the number one issue” impacting everyone in metro Atlanta, especially the region’s Black community, according to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. It’s why he says he’s spent years combatting abusive corporate landlords and promoting affordable home construction across the state.

“I’m in the midst now of an ongoing investigation of these out-of-state corporations that are buying up homes in bulk, driving Georgia homebuyers out of the market, and then pushing them into abusive rentals,” Ossoff told Capital B Atlanta during a recent phone interview. “I’ve also directed federal resources to support local efforts to build more affordable housing.”

It’s been more than four years since overwhelming support from Black voters helped Ossoff, now 38, defeat Republican challenger David Perdue in a landmark election cycle that sent two Georgia Democrats to the U.S. Senate for the first time in two decades.

Now the Atlanta native, who was mentored by the late John Lewis, is in the midst of a heated reelection campaign against a trio of GOP primary contenders competing for the chance to take him on during next year’s critical midterm election cycle.

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Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, both self-proclaimed MAGA enthusiasts, and former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Derek Dooley are all vying in the Georgia GOP’s U.S. Senate primary next year in hopes of defeating Ossoff during the 2026 fall general election. Dooley is a political newcomer backed by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

Ossoff received 92% of Georgia’s Black vote in 2021 during the decisive runoff election against Perdue, which Ossoff won by less than 55,000 votes, according to CNN. He is regarded as the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable U.S. Senate incumbent, in a state Republican President Donald Trump won by a more than 2% margin last year.

Ossoff acknowledged overwhelming support from Black Georgians helped him make history in 2021 and that he’ll likely need the same level of support to win reelection next year. 

“I have worked relentlessly to deliver tangibles for Georgia’s Black community,” he said. “I take no one’s vote for granted, and I will not be outworked in this campaign.”

Ossoff’s office said his record of deliverables on issues critical to Black voters includes investigating corporations buying up the local housing market, giving Black renters living in slumlord conditions a platform to air their grievances in Washington, sponsoring a bill that would make on-time rental payments count to toward improving one’s credit, and securing millions in funding for affordable housing, such as construction of 20 homes in South Atlanta’s Browns Mill Village mixed-income community last year.

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He also has pushed for greater accountability for accused slumlords receiving federal taxpayer money to provide housing for predominantly Black Section 8 tenants in Georgia, and — with added support from U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock — backed a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act that capped the cost of insulin at $35 per month. Nearly 17% of Black people in Georgia suffer from diabetes, according to a United Health Foundation analysis.

“That is a big win for Georgia, and it would not have happened if Reverend Warnock and I had not been elected,” Ossoff said.

Ossoff also touted his ongoing support for Atlanta’s Black business community and the institutions that empower them, including the Urban League of Greater Atlanta.

He said his support helped the local Urban League secure $3 million in funding for its capital readiness grant program in 2023. The program educated Black business owners on how to secure investment funding to expand their businesses. It was administered through the Minority Business Development Agency before an executive order from President Trump aimed at shrinking the federal government shut the program down.

A federal judge’s injunction against Trump’s order put the MBDA and its program in limbo, but the Urban League told Capital B last month that its program funding has not been restored.

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Last month, Ossoff sent a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging him to restore funding for the Urban League’s capital readiness program. Lutnick’s office hasn’t responded to emails and calls from Capital B Atlanta.

Ossoff said the situation is another example of Trump showing “extreme hostility to Black entrepreneurs,” challenges Ossoff argues will increase if a Republican replaces him in the U.S. Senate.

“It’s a systematic, across-the-board attack on anything that is meant to ensure a level playing field for Black-owned businesses,” he said. “The Trump administration is making war on Black-owned businesses.”

The White House has countered Ossoff’s remarks by pointing to President Trump’s economic record. White House Spokesman Kush Desai told Capital B Atlanta via email in August that the president’s trade deals “have unlocked unprecedented market access for American exports to economies that in total are worth over $32 trillion with 1.2 billion people.”

“As these historic trade deals and the administration’s pro-growth domestic agenda of deregulation and The One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax cuts take effect, American businesses and families alike have the certainty that the best is yet to come,” Desai said.

This story has been updated.