Last week, a TMZ reporter surprised Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff with a very out-of-pocket statement. “A lot of people have been saying that you’ve got BDE,” the Australian commentator said, fetching a wry smile from the Democratic 2028 hopeful.
We all know what he was talking about, but there’s another kind of BDE that Ossoff possesses: Big Democrat Energy. And it’s got Republicans quaking in their boots.
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The HRC-backed politician, a committed champion of LGBTQ+ rights who voted against a Republican-backed anti-trans bill in 2025, is one of the rising stars of the Democratic party, along with Texas Rep. James Talarico. Both men are classically handsome, stand ten toes down on trans rights, and aren’t letting fearmongering smear campaigns distract them from their core message.
The best part? It’s working. Yesterday, former GOP Arizona Senator Jeff Flake gave Ossoff his endorsement.
“I’m still a conservative Republican,” Flake explained. “But character matters. And I want someone in that seat who takes the institution seriously and will protect the institution.”
Flake’s respect for the institution has caused him to cross party lines several times, notably with his 2010 vote to end DADT. He was also a Tr*mp holdout during the despot’s first term. Now, like many others in the party, he’s sick and tired of the BS. Flake joins conservative Georgia radio host Shelley Wynter, who told listeners that he is “Team Ossoff” this June. Meanwhile, Ossoff’s opponent, the Tr*mp-endorsed Mike Collins, has fallen in the polls.
The trend is clear: Republicans with an eye toward the future are bailing on Tr*mp and focusing on candidates who represent what the people actually want, regardless of their party affiliation. Which could mean big things for the midterms.
“Democrats desperately need [this Georgia Senate seat] to flip the Senate,” political correspondent Amie Parnes told The Hill recently, “so obviously Tr*mp wants to attack [Ossoff.]…but Tr*mp doesn’t attack people unless he sees them as a potential threat.”
With the potential of flipping more Republicans over to his side, Ossoff definitely represents a crucial threat to Tr*mp’s stranglehold on the GOP. But the attacks they’re levelling against Ossoff and Talarico—specifically the anti-trans fearmongering they used in the 2024 race—aren’t working, and the reason is obvious. In 2024, the country was in a relatively stable place. People’s fears about the future were vague. There’s nothing vague about the catastrophe Tr*mp’s second term has presented for people trying to survive inflation, surging gas prices, and a flailing job market. Accusations of socialism don’t hold water now that people have seen Mamdani’s thriving approach to New York politics, and the nebulous threat of trans people corrupting the youth has started to look like what it really is: a distraction.
To make matters even thornier for Tr*mp, Democrats had a very good night last night.
“Republican back ballot initiatives in red states overwhelmingly lost,” Aaron Parnas reported of yesterday’s state races. In Kansas and Missouri, voters refused anti-bodily autonomy measures and loopholes to easily replace Supreme Court justices to keep a Republican majority.
The message is crystal clear: voters are sick of the status quo, and ready to embrace the BDE wave heading their way in November.
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