A non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), has filed a complaint against Georgia Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, accusing him of violating Senate ethics rules by directly linking official action to a request for campaign contributions.
FACT sent a letter to Ethics Committee Chairman Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Vice-Chairman Chris Coons (D-DE) in which they stated:
On March 14th, 2025, Senator Ossoff sent out an email that contained only two subjects: (1) that he planned to vote against a specific bill; and (2) a request for a campaign contribution. The email began with the statement, “I will vote ‘NO’ on the Trump/Musk/Johnson ‘CR.’” Following several statements about the bill, he then makes a direct request for a campaign contribution: “If you can afford it, please rush $5 to Jon Ossoff’s re-election campaign today. If you’ve stored your info with ActBlue, we’ll process your contribution instantly.”
“Senate Ethics Rules specifically prohibit Senators from soliciting campaign contributions based upon any action taken in their official capacity,” the letter continued. “By linking a promise of official action with campaign contributions, a Senator violates a ‘basic principle’ of Senate Ethics that guards against conflicts of interest.”
“Voting on legislation is one of the primary jobs of a Senator, which simply cannot be tied to campaign fundraising. The ethics rules forbid certain practices in campaign fundraising, and linking it to official action is one that is simply not allowed–and for good reason. This fundraising tactic dangerously incentivizes Senators to take official action based on their estimation of what will raise the most campaign funds. Senators, who are nearly always raising campaign funds, will be rightly seen as making important official decisions based on what will bring in the most money—not on the merits of an issue,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
Ossoff won his seat in the Senate in 2021 in a run-off election after GOP candidate David Perdue defeated him in the November 2020 general election but narrowly missed getting 50% of the vote. His victory in the run-off election, along with Raphael Warnock’s win in another run-off, gave Georgia two Democratic U.S. senators and gave the Democrats a majority in the Senate. Ossoff is up for re-election in 2026, and there’s a good chance he will be opposed by Georgia’s enormously popular GOP governor, Brian Kemp.
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[[{“value”:”
A non-partisan ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), has filed a complaint against Georgia Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, accusing him of violating Senate ethics rules by directly linking official action to a request for campaign contributions.
FACT sent a letter to Ethics Committee Chairman Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Vice-Chairman Chris Coons (D-DE) in which they stated:
On March 14th, 2025, Senator Ossoff sent out an email that contained only two subjects: (1) that he planned to vote against a specific bill; and (2) a request for a campaign contribution. The email began with the statement, “I will vote ‘NO’ on the Trump/Musk/Johnson ‘CR.’” Following several statements about the bill, he then makes a direct request for a campaign contribution: “If you can afford it, please rush $5 to Jon Ossoff’s re-election campaign today. If you’ve stored your info with ActBlue, we’ll process your contribution instantly.”
“Senate Ethics Rules specifically prohibit Senators from soliciting campaign contributions based upon any action taken in their official capacity,” the letter continued. “By linking a promise of official action with campaign contributions, a Senator violates a ‘basic principle’ of Senate Ethics that guards against conflicts of interest.”
“Voting on legislation is one of the primary jobs of a Senator, which simply cannot be tied to campaign fundraising. The ethics rules forbid certain practices in campaign fundraising, and linking it to official action is one that is simply not allowed–and for good reason. This fundraising tactic dangerously incentivizes Senators to take official action based on their estimation of what will raise the most campaign funds. Senators, who are nearly always raising campaign funds, will be rightly seen as making important official decisions based on what will bring in the most money—not on the merits of an issue,” said Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT.
Ossoff won his seat in the Senate in 2021 in a run-off election after GOP candidate David Perdue defeated him in the November 2020 general election but narrowly missed getting 50% of the vote. His victory in the run-off election, along with Raphael Warnock’s win in another run-off, gave Georgia two Democratic U.S. senators and gave the Democrats a majority in the Senate. Ossoff is up for re-election in 2026, and there’s a good chance he will be opposed by Georgia’s enormously popular GOP governor, Brian Kemp.
“}]]
