Wow. This new quote about Democrat Jon Ossoff from the Republican mayor of Georgia’s seventh-largest city—situated in the state’s 6th Congressional District, which is hosting a major special election on April 18—will blow your socks away:
Jere Wood, the longtime Republican mayor of Roswell, disagrees. “This isn’t a youth vote up here,” he told me at his office, when I asked him about the makeup of the Sixth. “This is a mature voter base. If someone is going down the list, they’re gonna vote for somebody who is familiar.” He paused. “If you just say ‘Ossoff,’ some folks are gonna think, ‘Is he Muslim? Is he Lebanese? Is he Indian?’ It’s an ethnic-sounding name, even though he may be a white guy, from Scotland or wherever.”
A “mature voter base.” Evidently, in Wood’s mind, that means old and racist and squicked out by a name like “Ossoff,” which could mean he’s MOOSLIM. (Actually, the name is Jewish by way of Russia and Lithuania, “probably truncated at Ellis Island,” explains Ossoff, “from something like Ossoffsky.”)
Funny enough, one of the leading Republican candidates is a businessman and prominent Trump supporter named … Bruce LeVell. Will voters in Georgia’s 6th really cast ballots for someone with such a French-sounding name? What’s worse, to Mayor Wood and his constituents? France or India? Baguettes or samosas? Soccer or cricket? It’s all quite the pickle!
There’s only one good response to ignorance like this: Give $3 to Jon Ossoff and make sure his is a name Republicans never forget.