Pat Donahue/Times-EnterpriseU.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff addresses a crowd of supporters during a campaign stop Friday in Thomasville. 

THOMASVILLE — The entire nation is watching Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs, one of the candidates told a crowd of supporters Friday afternoon.

Jon Ossoff, a Democrat challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue for his seat, also urged a crowd of nearly 200 to vote.

“Georgia is the most competitive battleground state in the United States,” Ossoff said. “In these two Senate runoffs, for control of the United States Senate, your standard bearers are the young Jewish son of an immigrant mentored by John Lewis and a Black preacher who holds Dr. King’s pulpit. 

“And we’re running against like the Bonnie and Clyde of corruption in American politics.”

Both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats will be decided in a runoff, and early voting for the January 5, 2021 election has begun. Rev. Raphael Warnock is challenging sitting U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler in the other race.

“How did we wind up with David and Kelly?” Ossoff charged. “But change has come to Georgia, change is coming to America and retirement is coming for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.”

Ossoff told his supporters his campaign is based on health, jobs and justice, and he railed against the federal government for not stepping in when the hospital in Cuthbert closed back in October. The hospital, according to reports, lost a major revenue stream when patients chose to put off or cancel elective surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had a hospital closure in Cuthbert in the middle of a pandemic in October. There is no excuse for that,” he said. “The federal government should have given resources to that hospital to keep operating during that pandemic.”

Ossoff said he believes every community deserves a hospital and said health care is a human right “and not just a privilege for those who have enough money in their bank account or live in the right zip code.”

Ossoff also pushed for massive infrastructure spending and an investments in clean energy as ways to spark job growth. 

“We can invest in jobs and infrastructure to revitalize our economy and help families get back on their feet in this crisis,” he said. “We can create tens of thousands of jobs across this state by passing the most ambitious infrastructure and jobs and clean energy program in American history. 

“We can make Georgia the number one producer of clean and renewable energy in the American South and America the number one producer of clean energy in the world.”

Should Perdue and Loeffler retain their seats, the Republicans will maintain their majority in the Senate. Ossoff told his supporters that putting he and Warnock into office will end Sen. Mitch McConnell’s tenure as majority leader. 

Ossoff said Senate Republicans have been impeding measures for COVID-19 economic relief. A deal was struck over the weekend for a $900 billion relief package. 

“They will block the COVID relief that we need,” he said. “They will block the $15 an hour minimum wage that we need. They will block affordable health care. They will back the civil rights and voting rights legislation that we need.”

Ossoff, who also ran in a 2017 special election for the U.S. House 6th District seat, supports expanding the Pell Grant “so no young people have to take on debt to get a degree from a public college or a (historically Black college and university).” 

“We have the resources to do these things,” he said. ‘Our resources are not unlimited. We have to set priorities. Health care and education are priorities worth setting. 

Ossoff also called for a new Civil Rights Act and a new Voting Rights Act. He endorsed the George Floyd Criminal Justice in Policing bill.  He invoked the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year just outside of Brunswick as why a new Civil Rights Act is needed. 

“The 14th Amendment already guarantees equal protection under the law,” he said. “But when Ahmaud Arbery is shot to death in broad daylight and local authorities look the other way because he is a young Black man that makes a mockery of equal protection under the law.” 

Ossoff, a former intern for the late U.S. Rep. and civil rights leader John Lewis, said a new Civil Rights Act and new Voting Rights Act could represent this generation’s movement.

“We will look back on the summer of 2020 and the peaceful mobilization after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor as our march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge,’ he said. 

Ossoff also declared his support for a woman’s right to choose an abortion. 

“I will defend freedom of choice with everything I’ve got,” he said. “I will defend Roe v Wade in the U.S. Senate. Politicians have no place in the doctor’s office between women and their doctors.”

Perdue claimed the most votes in the November general election, but fell short of the needed majority by fewer than 13,500 votes, taking more than 49.7% of the votes cast. Ossoff received 47.95% of the vote.

Ossoff castigated his opponent for his failure to debate him and also charged Perdue has used his office to further pad his bank account, saying Perdue and Loeffler have profited from stocks related to the pandemic, along with other information used for financial gain.

“David Perdue is more than just a garden variety crook,” Ossoff said. “He is a crook and he knows it and his supporters know it. David Perdue has been treating his Senate office like it’s his E-Trade account.

“My opponent won’t even come out and debate me. He hasn’t held a public town hall meeting in six years. I will be the most accessible and transparent senator in Georgia’s history.”

Ossoff added his campaign isn’t about Perdue but is instead focused on issues. 

“We have bigger and better things to think about,” he said. “We should feel excited about this moment, but we can only do these things if we vote.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.