Senate hopeful Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) ripped into Republicans Thursday for a parody site that claims he was "shamed" into marrying his longtime girlfriend.
"Mitch McConnell’s attacks on my wife are outrageous and pathetic," Ossoff said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "McConnell is wasting no time plunging this race into the gutter."
Mitch McConnell’s attacks on my wife are outrageous and pathetic.
Alisha is an OB-GYN doctor who delivers health care to Georgia women every day.
McConnell and Perdue voted to strip health insurance from women who need it most and they are desperate to overturn Roe v Wade. https://t.co/t581urui43
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) October 24, 2019
The National Republican Senatorial Committee bought the domain for www.JonOssoff.com, which redirects to an obviously fake campaign site that includes mocking resume items about his failed bid for Georgia's Sixth Congressional District seat in 2017. The fake resume includes the line, "was mocked for embellishig [sic] my resume, and eventually shamed into proposing to my girlfriend of 12 years."
The site's "store" also features a $13 "limited edition engagement ring" for buyers to propose to their own "real" girlfriends.
Ossoff, 32, proposed to his now-wife Alisha Kramer in May 2017 after 12 years of dating. The couple married last year.
A month before the proposal, CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota bluntly asked Ossoff, "when are you going to marry her?" Ossoff smiled and said it was a personal question, but would let her know when he had something to announce.
Ossoff and Kramer's relationship became a sore spot for his candidacy. The couple lived outside of the sixth district so she could be close to Emory Medical School. As a result, Ossoff was unable to vote for himself, and despite raising a then-record $30 million, he lost to Republican Karen Handel in the special election to replace Rep. Tom Price.
Despite having never held elected office, Ossoff is now seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.), who is up for reelection in 2020. Democrat Stacey Abrams's decision to not challenge Perdue after she lost the governor's race last year has left the Georgia Senate field wide open.
The NRSC, in addition to citing Washington Free Beacon senior writer Andrew Stiles's description of Ossoff as a "human cash incinerator," mocked him for announcing his run on MSNBC in New York City.
Ossoff is the top fundraiser in the Democratic field, which also includes former Columbus, Ga., mayor Teresa Tomlinson, Clarkston, Ga., mayor Ted Terry, and failed 2018 lieutenant-governor candidate Sarah Riggs Amico.
Among the donations to Ossoff was the maximum $5,600 from 2016 Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jim Barksdale, who has dabbled in 9/11 trutherism. Barksdale tweeted on Sept. 11 that the real takeaway from the 9/11 attacks was that the government is "hiding something from us." He later told the AJC that it was "what a coverup looks like," according to the Daily Wire.