Jon Ossoff is the firstmillennial to get elected to the senate.- He comes from a generation that's battled loneliness, grappled with devastating mental health struggles and faced both financial instability and a growing wealth gap.
- Since he ran for a house seat in 2016, Ossoff's social media-friendly presence has marked him out as truly representative of his very online generation.
- He and
Georgia 's other new senator-elect, Rev.Raphael Warnock , represent the changing face of Americanpolitics , showing the power of young voters and voters of color.
Jon Ossoff is aggressively millennial: He's Very Online.
He's on TikTok. He's interned. He's worked at a young media company. He's well-educated, and he even had a side hustle - running for office in Georgia (twice).
And now, he's the youngest Democrat elected to the senate since 1973, when President-elect Joe Biden joined the legislative body as a 30-year-old. Ossoff will be the country's first millennial senator.
Ossoff is also making history as Georgia's first Jewish senator, according to Haaretz, and the first southern Jewish senator since the 1880s. At 33 years old, he's only three years past the minimum age to become a senator.
And, like the good millennial he is, Ossoff has truly posted through it all. He hasn't scrubbed his old, nerdy tweets - relatable to any millennial who has lived their life online - and has hopped on TikTok trends adeptly.
Examples of Ossoff's digital-native millennial behavior are when he tweeted "n00b 4 lyfe," participated in #ff (Follow Friday) on Twitter, and followed dril. For those whose brains haven't been melted by Twitter, that means, respectively: he called himself an inexperienced gamer, recommended Twitter users for others to follow, and follows an absurdist comic sensibility dubbed the "king of Weird Twitter."
Ossoff is richer than the average millennial, though. While he's received money from his family (which is common among millennials), The Washington Post reported that his net worth is between $2.3 million and $8.8 million, compared to an average millennial net worth of less than $8,000 as of 2019. Insider's Hillary Hoffower reported that the "K-shaped recovery" amid the pandemic is creating a wide gap between classes of "rich millennials" and "poor millennials."
The most famous millennial politician comes from the generation's other cohort: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who pulled off a famous upset win in a 2018 congressional primary while establishing a notable presence on social media. After graduating from Boston University, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx, wanting to help her family. She famously worked as a bartender before launching her campaign, creating an energizing and new story of millennial success along the way.
In 2019, she became the youngest woman ever elected to congress when she joined the House, and has since become an icon of the left and youth organizing movement as well as something of a lightning rod to the right. Now 31, Ocasio-Cortez is eligible to challenge Chuck Schumer for a senate seat, an option she hasn't ruled out.
Ossoff's father is the CEO and president of a small continuing education company, Strafford Publications. His mother, an Australian immigrant, has reportedly held "several senior management roles," according to the Sydney Morning Herald. She also cofounded a nonpartisan PAC to help female candidates in Georgia.
"I openly acknowledge that the opportunity I've had is a function of my parents' hard work," Ossoff told The Washington Post's Michael Kranish in December.
Ossoff did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
Ossoff represents a potential shift in the state of millennials - and highlights what it takes for millennials to succeed
Ossoff and Ocasio-Cortez have much in common when it comes to that most millennial of things: social media strategy. Ossoff set the stage for the younger politicians taking social media platforms - and their younger voters - by storm, as he became an early face of the "resistance" in 2016 when he launched an ultimately unsuccessful run for a Georgia house seat in a 2017 special election.
At the time, WIRED's Issie Lapowsky wrote about how Ossoff's "underdog" local campaign went viral with catchy hashtags. As NPR reported at the time, he received shoutouts from celebrities and massive crowdfunded donations - and some attack ads featuring him playing Han Solo in college. His sudden social media notoriety mean his loss felt visceral to those following along with every tweet and update, even if they were miles (or oceans) away from his race.
Both Ossoff and fellow Senator-elect Rev. Raphael Warnock made history with their respective victories. Warnock, who defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, will be Georgia's first Black senator. In fact, as Insider's Jake Lahut reported, Warnock is only the second Black senator from the South since reconstruction.
In the 2020 presidential election, youth turnout was key in President-elect Joe Biden's victory, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. Young people of color were particularly pivotal in Georgia. According to data from CIRCLE, 90% of Black youths in Georgia voted for Biden, giving him a net margin of 200,000 votes in a state that he won by about 12,000 votes.
Black youths in Georgia also overwhelmingly supported Ossoff and Warnock, and were key in forcing a run-off between Ossoff and incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue. Black and young voters were both targeted in Stacey Abrams' historic organizing and voter registration efforts.
In the runoff elections that took place in early January, the Associated Press reported that Black and young voters, as well as new Georgia residents, helped launch Warnock and Ossoff to victory.
Ossoff could well be part of a turning tide with his historic win - and perhaps proof of the power of millennial spirit when backed by targeted and decisive organizing.
At the very least, he'll surely remain "n00b 4 lyfe."