Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff neglected to register his own name for a campaign website before launching his Senate bid, and now Republicans are using it against him.
The JonOssoff.com site launched Wednesday, which the National Republican Senatorial Committee bought last month around the time Ossoff announced his candidacy, features a “*Not Jon Ossoff” parody campaign website mocking his missteps during his failed 2017 special election House bid.
A “human cash incinerator” slogan references the record $30 million Ossoff raised in his 2017 race, widely described as the first referendum on President Trump, before losing to Republican Karen Handel by 3 points. The vote tally appears on a 404 error image on the “issues” page. (Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath defeated Handel in the 2018 midterm election.)
The website’s parody resume, which mimics a LinkedIn profile, says that Ossoff “struggles with domain names” as a Senate candidate and says that he “launched campaign from MSNBC studio in New York City.” Ossoff first announced his Senate bid on MSNBC’s prime-time show The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell in September.
Ossoff’s official campaign website, electjon.com, does not feature a policy issues page but has a video that notes his experience as a national security aide in Congress and as a documentary filmmaker.
“Georgia voters can count on www.JonOssoff.com as their go-to source for all of Jon Ossoff’s resume inflation, left-wing positions, and misleading claims,” said NRSC spokesperson Nathan Brand.
A fake website’s store features references to controversies that plagued Ossoff’s house bid: a “Super Double Top-Secret Security Clearance Spy Kit” and a “Limited Edition Engagement Ring,” picturing a candy Ring Pop.
In 2017, the Washington Post fact-checker gave Ossoff one “Pinocchio” for stating that he had “five years of experience as a national security staffer in the U.S. Congress and “held top secret security clearance,” noting that he had a security clearance for about five months.
After fielding questions about when he would propose his girlfriend of 12 years, Alisha Kramer, Ossoff popped the question about a month-and-a-half before the election. He justified living just outside the boundaries of the district he was running to represent because he was living with Kramer while she attended medical school at Emory University. The couple has since tied the knot.
Poking fun at a clip of Ossoff dressed as Han Solo in a Star Wars skit when he was a student at Georgetown University, a fake op-ed calls Jar Jar Binks “The Unsung National Security Hero of the Star Wars Saga.”
The domain name previously directed users to a 2017 Washington Examiner opinion article about the congressional candidate.
Several other candidates also seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Georgia Sen. David Purdue in 2020, including former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry, and former Georgia Lieutenant Governor candidate Sarah Riggs Amico.
