Democratic senator denounces billionaires’ influence in politics while taking their money

FIRST ON FOX: Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, said the Democratic Party must “focus on” corruption in American politics and that “the vast amounts of corporate and billionaire money in our political system” are the reason Americans are so poorly served by Congress.

But the vulnerable senator, up for reelection in 2026, has received nearly half a million dollars from billionaires, including more than $154,000 this year alone, according to a Fox News digital analysis of Federal Election Commission filings.

“A large portion of the American public has lost faith in our political system, and for good reason. Since Citizens United, this political system has been corruption on steroids, and it’s a large part of why politics doesn’t serve ordinary people,” Ossoff said on the popular left-leaning podcast “Pod Save America.”

“We cannot become mere guardians of the status quo. We must focus on change and reform, and money in politics is the root of all this,” he continued. “We need to focus on this, you know, the enormous amounts of corporate money and billionaires in our political system, with or without Trump, is the reason why ordinary people are so poorly served by elected officials and by Congress.”

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Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, has raised a lot of money from out-of-state donors. Some GOP critics and Capitol Hill insiders have argued that the Georgia Democrat cannot break rank during the previous government shutdown and vote to reopen the government or he could risk losing his significant support from far-left liberals across the country. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Billionaire class contributors to Ossoff’s campaign include members of the Soros family, tech billionaire Eric Schmidt, co-founder of LinkedIn and tech billionaire in his own right, Reid Hoffman, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and owner of Cox Enterprises James Cox-Chambers, billionaire hedge fund manager Henry Laufer and dozens of others.

In total, Ossoff’s campaigns have received contributions from more than 70 billionaires since 2017, when Ossoff first ran for Congress. Ossoff has touted his refusal to accept corporate PAC money, but according to campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets, some of Ossoff’s top individual contributors come from big companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta.

Open Secrets also shows that in 2023-2024, Ossoff received thousands of dollars from PACs representing lawyers and lobbyists, various businesses, agribusiness and labor unions.

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Sen. Jon Ossoff is running for re-election in a state that Trump won in 2024, albeit by a slim two-point margin. Ossoff was described by CNN as the nation’s “most threatened Senate Democrat.” (AP Photo/Buddy Carter for Senate)

In addition to his comments during the “Pod Save America” ​​podcast, Ossoff has repeatedly criticized the influence of “wealthy political donors” and said they have no place in politics.

“As power becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and wealth becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands…wealthy and powerful groups can spend unlimited amounts of money in secret…to manipulate elections,” Ossoff said in 2019.

Ossoff, who was endorsed by End Citizens United in July, said Citizens United “unleashed the torrent of secret, corporate, billionaire money that has deeply corrupted Congress and our political system.” However, he continues to take his campaign money from billionaires, and last month he featured Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzer, whose estimated net worth is more than $3.5 billion, in a fundraising email seeking donations for his re-election campaign.

Ossoff declined to provide a response when contacted for comment for this story.

Described by CNN as the nation’s “most threatened Senate Democrat,” Ossoff touted “an unstoppable grassroots coalition” amid his reelection efforts heading into 2026.

The Georgia senator, in a press release following his campaign’s latest quarterly filing with the FEC, touted that his “reelection juggernaut” was “overwhelmingly” fueled by small donors with an average of $36 coming from about 233,000 donors.

But more than 80% of the money he collected during the latest filing period came from out of state, not Georgia, according to FEC records. Meanwhile, more than half of its donors at most came from California, New York or the DC-Maryland-Virginia region. If a donor has not given a total of at least $200, that donor’s contribution is not disclosed in FEC filings.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff addresses the crowd during his 2020 campaign for Congress. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

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Ossoff is running for reelection in a state that Trump won in 2024, albeit by a slim two-point margin. He first came to Congress in 2021 after defeating incumbent Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in a razor-thin election that required a runoff.

During this first election cycle, Ossoff reportedly raised 60% of his contributions outside the state of Georgia.