Sen. Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) has spent thousands of dollars in campaign funds on "makeup services" in 2026, and his artist of choice has a long list of Hollywood credits, including The Notebook and The Hunger Games, a Washington Free Beacon review found.
Ossoff has paid makeup artist Stephanie Ponder $2,887 for "makeup services" since February, federal campaign finance disclosures show. The most recent payment of $900 came on June 10. An advertisement on the online production crew directory SHOOTS describes Ponder as an Atlanta-based freelancer and member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees who offers "Services for all phases of Makeup: Film, Video, Print, Runway." It also includes credits on films like the Disney-produced Denzel Washington hit Remember the Titans.
The credit list on Ponder's IMDb page lists that movie and other blockbusters, including the 2004 Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams romantic drama The Notebook, the 2013 and 2014 action flicks The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, and the 2023 DC Comics superhero film Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Ponder most recently worked as a makeup artist on the 2026 Netflix limited series His & Hers starring Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson.
Ossoff's four-figure makeup expenditures stand out among federal candidates. The Georgia senator who is running for reelection against Republican Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.), has reported spending more on makeup than any other candidate this year, beating out the likes of far-left Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.). Ocasio-Cortez has spent $1,837.93 on "campaign event hair & makeup services" in 2026, while Tlaib has spent $320 on "hair and makeup services."
The spending also comes as liberal media figures praise the 39-year-old Ossoff's carefully managed on-camera presence and float him as a prospective 2028 presidential candidate.
A recent Puck profile asserted that Ossoff "has seemingly reinvented himself" in anticipation of a 2028 presidential bid, adding a "beefier physique to his studied, Obama-like cadence." New York Times columnist Ezra Klein noted that as a former documentary filmmaker, Ossoff "actually knows how to create TV." Klein pointed to Ossoff’s polished campaign videos, which rely heavily on the use of the "hero shot," in which a photo or video is taken from a low angle in order to make the subject appear more imposing and powerful. MS NOW host Chris Hayes similarly described Ossoff as "very conventionally handsome and young" and noted he "could be in a movie."
Vogue, meanwhile, likened Ossoff to "an attractive camp counselor" in an article about the "internet thirst" surrounding him. Queerty, an LGBTQ publication, compared Ossoff to "an attractive version of Atticus Finch," the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, adding, "Jon Ossoff & his slutty little glasses are already our summertime political crush."
On the campaign trail, however, Ossoff presents himself less as a polished pretty boy and more as a populist fighter for the working class. In a recent interview, he said Vice President J.D. Vance "has zero credibility as a champion for America's working class." As it happens, Ossoff's makeup artist also earned a credit on the 2020 film Hillbilly Elegy, the Hollywood adaptation of Vance's memoir recounting his low-income upbringing in Middletown, Ohio. Ossoff's father, by contrast, is an attorney who owns a publishing company and purchased the Washington, D.C., home that Ossoff lived in when he worked as a congressional aide, the Free Beacon reported.
While the exact nature of Ponder's makeup services for the Ossoff campaign is unclear, Ossoff's campaign paid Ponder within days of high-profile rallies, including one in Augusta, Ga., on April 18 and one in Atlanta on May 31. In Augusta, Ossoff mocked the notion that "MAGA was for the working class." In Atlanta, he said that "for too many across our state … groceries, rent, insurance, taxes, the car note, the power bill—the math just does not work."
Ossoff's campaign paid Ponder $1,087.33 9 days after the Augusta rally and $900 10 days after the Atlanta rally. His first payment to Ponder, also for $900, came on Feb. 28, records show. The payments appear to be on the high end for makeup services. Ocasio-Cortez, for example, spent $450 on her most recent "makeup services" expenditure, while Tlaib spent $110.
Neither Ossoff's campaign nor Ponder responded to requests for comment.
