U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff traveled to Athens on Monday for a rally to turn out Democratic voters.
“This is a matter of life and death,” Ossoff told several hundred people who gathered at College Square for the hastily organized rally.
The documentary filmmaker and former John Lewis staffer—who became a national name for nearly flipping a staunchly Republican metro Atlanta congressional seat in 2017—is neck and neck with incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Monday found that Ossoff leads Perdue 46% to 45%, and Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in Georgia 47% to 46%. Both results are well within the poll’s margin of error and are essentially statistical ties.
Ossoff criticized Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and Perdue for stock trades he made after a classified briefing on coronavirus. If elected, Ossoff said he will work to appoint Supreme Court nominees who will uphold Roe v. Wade and the Voting Rights Act.
Introducing Ossoff, Mayor Kelly Girtz said it’s ironic that Republicans caricature Democrats as the “coastal elite” when Trump’s official residence is Palm Beach, FL, and Perdue lives on Sea Island. He also attacked Perdue’s record as former CEO of Dollar General, saying that he “imported cheap Chinese plastic” while not paying employees a fair wage.
State House candidates Mokah Johnson and Jonathan Wallace, state Senate candidate Zachary Perry, district attorney candidate Deborah Gonzalez and candidate for sheriff John Q. Williams also gave brief stump speeches.
Gonzalez referenced Biden’s planned visit to Georgia on Tuesday.
“That’s a big deal,” she said. “That tells people Georgia is in play.”
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