Senator Jon Ossoff met with Black women leaders in Atlanta alongside Senator Angela Alsobrooks to address some of the most pressing challenges facing Black women in Georgia. Discussions focused on economic inequality, disproportionate job losses, job retention, and the persistent wealth and employment gap. Leaders also raised serious concerns about healthcare access, maternal health disparities, the refusal to expand Medicaid, and the growing pressure on clinics and community hospitals. Ossoff also condemned efforts to restrict voting access and weaken democratic participation, putting Georgia’s economic, healthcare, and voting rights challenges at the center of the political debate.
#JonOssoff #AngelaAlsobrooks #BlackWomenGeorgia #GeorgiaPolitics #GeorgiaVotingRights #VotingRights #BlackWomenLeaders #EconomicInequality #MaternalHealth #HealthcareCrisis #MedicaidExpansion #GeorgiaHealthcare #VotingAccess #Democracy #GeorgiaNews #Ossoff #BlackWomen #EconomicJustice #MaternalHealthCrisis #GeorgiaPolitics2026 #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #VotingRightsGeorgia #HealthcareAccess #GeorgiaDemocracy
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#JonOssoff #AngelaAlsobrooks #BlackWomenGeorgia #GeorgiaPolitics #GeorgiaVotingRights #VotingRights #BlackWomenLeaders #EconomicInequality #MaternalHealth #HealthcareCrisis #MedicaidExpansion #GeorgiaHealthcare #VotingAccess #Democracy #GeorgiaNews #Ossoff #BlackWomen #EconomicJustice #MaternalHealthCrisis #GeorgiaPolitics2026 #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #VotingRightsGeorgia #HealthcareAccess #GeorgiaDemocracy
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hey, good morning, everybody. Good morning. It is such a pleasure to be with you. And let's show our love
00:08and gratitude to this extraordinary public servant, Senator Angela Alsterbrooks. Thank you for being with us, Angela. Thank you so
00:15much for your support. We do. We sit right next to each other on the Senate floor. And so together
00:23we get up to good trouble.
00:26And I am really looking forward to this conversation, deeply grateful to you all for being here. And I see
00:33too many very important people, civic leaders, elected leaders, for me to honor and recognize you all individually.
00:44So I will stand on protocol that we've established together for years, if you'll accept that, and know that this
00:51is family. I also see some new faces and I'm deeply grateful for the new folks who are here to
00:56join this team.
00:58And we're going to have a conversation, so I won't say too much at the top, except I want to
01:03say this.
01:05I do not take for granted or feel entitled to your support. I do not take for granted or feel
01:13entitled to this Senate seat.
01:15This Senate seat does not belong to me. This Senate seat belongs to the people of the great state of
01:21Georgia.
01:22Georgia. And as we have this conversation here today, I just want us to ground ourselves in a couple of
01:29facts about the time that we live in.
01:33Because some people just happen to live at times and in places where what we do matters more.
01:44Where what we do has a profound impact on our immediate circumstances, on our immediate community, and on the deep
01:53future and the whole nation and the world.
01:56And over and over and over through American history, this place, Atlanta, Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, the South, has been somewhere
02:05where people who have courage and a mission and are on the right side of history,
02:12working together with passion and courage and determination, have made a difference that advances progress not just in the short
02:19term, but in the long term.
02:20And these next five months, not for the sake of the Democratic Party, but for the sake of our country,
02:30these next five months matter an awful lot.
02:34So I hope that you leave this event feeling informed, motivated, passionate, and inspired to stay involved and to deepen
02:44your engagement and to get everybody we know involved in this effort to win and to win decisively.
02:51All right. We're going to have a great conversation. Thank you again, Senator, for being here.
02:55Thank you again to Ryan Wilson, my Georgetown classmate, for creating the Gathering Spot.
03:00This is my first time at the retreat, this new location. I understand this is the one-year anniversary of
03:07opening this new space.
03:12Ryan, congratulations. Thank you for making this available to all of us. Thank you for your leadership and your convening
03:17and your entrepreneurship.
03:18Let's give a round of applause to the staff here, to the kitchen staff, the back office, the wait staff.
03:24Thank you all.
03:25Let's express our gratitude as well to the law enforcement personnel who are here keeping us all safe.
03:31I'd like to ask every veteran, every military spouse and service member to please raise your hand if you can
03:38and hold it high.
03:38And let's show our gratitude to those who have served and made sacrifices.
03:42Thank you so much. And let's have a great conversation. Thank you all. Thank you.
03:47All right. Well, let's get right down to it.
03:50So this Sunday marks the 100 days until Election Day.
03:56Yes, this Sunday. We're almost there, as they say when they cut the monkey's tail off, won't be long now.
04:03Right. Well, I'd like to open our conversation with an update.
04:08Can you tell us about the current state of the race and what are your expectations for the critical final
04:15three months of this race?
04:18A hundred days coming up. And here's another way to look at it.
04:20It's it's something like three thousand hours till the polls close.
04:27Who's counting, Miss Joe? Yeah.
04:30Tell Pastor Black I said hello, by the way. OK, thank you.
04:37You all are here, so you're paying pretty close attention to national affairs.
04:41And so I don't need to recite for you all the litany of terribles that are being forced on our
04:48republic right now.
04:50But what we are dealing with is deeper than the ordinary conflict over policy and ideas between two political parties.
05:02Because. The folks in power in the White House right now, judge.
05:11They have really only one agenda.
05:14And that is to amass as much power and wealth in one family as possible.
05:21And. We are seeing them try to wield government to crush the opposition.
05:29You've all seen it.
05:32Before I ever ran for office, before I got involved in public life, as you know, Angela,
05:37I led a team that investigated and exposed war crimes and human rights abuses and official corruption and organized crime
05:44for international news media.
05:45And we helped courageous journalists to smuggle the truth out of repressive societies with authoritarian governments.
05:57And more and more.
05:59The United States under Donald Trump reminds me of those places.
06:03You all heard of Senator Mark Kelly, our colleague Mark Kelly.
06:06Yeah.
06:07So this man.
06:11Is a decorated combat veteran, naval aviator, astronaut, space shuttle commander, United States senator.
06:21He's like the embodiment of patriotism.
06:26And for the better part of a year, his own government, the Trump administration, has been trying to imprison him.
06:36They've been trying to indict him in civilian court for the apparent offense of having stated publicly a core principle
06:49of military law.
06:52And in so doing, criticizing the administration.
06:56When they start trying to arrest and imprison opposition lawmakers, you see the kind of situation that we're dealing with.
07:06And at the same time, and I know we'll get into more detail on health care and the economy,
07:12but you've got one of the most corrupt and destructive and unpopular policy agendas in American history,
07:21defunding hospitals and nursing homes and slashing Medicaid and doubling health insurance premiums from over a million Georgians
07:27to give yet another tax break to the wealthiest people in the country.
07:32And this Senate race, as you know, and this is why you're here, and I'm grateful that you're here,
07:37this Senate race will be pivotal, decisive.
07:40There is no path back to the majority and therefore to real accountability without winning this Senate race.
07:51And I am facing a man in Congressman Collins who is unfit for any office.
08:01Unfit for any office.
08:05See, there's a reason Brian Kemp worked so hard to try to keep Mike Collins from getting the nomination in
08:11this Senate race.
08:12And it's because even among Georgia Republicans, Mike Collins is known as a man of low integrity and poor character.
08:19This man is a known bigot and anti-Semite.
08:23We've learned in just the last few weeks that Congressman Collins' office has been briefing Nick Fuentes
08:30and other prominent white supremacists on its efforts on behalf of a notorious Holocaust denier.
08:36We've learned CNN reporting just last week that a neo-Nazi propagandist has been based on Mike Collins' property.
08:46And still, to this very day, now a week later, the congressman will not answer whether he or his businesses
08:53or his office or his campaign have been paying a neo-Nazi.
09:02So, this is a man who represents a dark past that Georgia has moved on through and beyond.
09:19And what we have the opportunity to do this fall is to not just end Congressman Collins' political career,
09:30but to rebuke these presidential abuses so decisively
09:38that we don't just restore checks and balances for the next few years.
09:43We send a message so that no president in either party will try anything like this again for centuries.
09:48For centuries.
09:50That's the opportunity that we have.
09:53Well, you mentioned health care.
09:55So, let's get into a discussion about that.
09:58So, health care has rightfully remained really at the forefront of our national discourse.
10:04And here in Georgia in particular,
10:06maternal health care is a particularly urgent crisis,
10:10having one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country,
10:15with black women facing a risk three times higher.
10:18So, you've been an advocate in the Senate on this issue.
10:21We want to thank you for that.
10:23And we wonder whether you can discuss the current landscape of this fight
10:28and then your ongoing work to eliminate gaps in care.
10:32I think this issue in what we all know as Georgians
10:37is that we're living through a health care emergency in the state of Georgia.
10:42And it's an emergency that our so-called leaders at the state level try to dress up as normal.
10:47They try to numb us.
10:50They try to numb us to the suffering and death that result from their decisions
10:55and their poor leadership.
10:59Angela, if you are born today in the state of Georgia,
11:03your life expectancy is less than if you were born today in Lebanon,
11:09a country that's been in a state of intermittent civil war for decades.
11:12Now, think about this.
11:14Lebanon's national economy is 40 times smaller than Georgia's state economy.
11:21Y'all following me?
11:23But they live longer than we do.
11:27Half of our counties, as you all know, have no OB-GYN.
11:32We've lost in Georgia 21 hospitals in 20 years.
11:38We have among the lowest newborn weights at birth in the country.
11:46We have one of the worst shortages of mental health care providers in the country.
11:50And none of this is necessary.
11:54This isn't just the way things are.
11:56This is a choice that our governor and Republicans in our state legislature have made.
12:01They have chosen not to expand Medicaid.
12:04They have chosen to leave people without health coverage.
12:06They've chosen to deprive our hospitals and our clinics and our nursing homes of resources.
12:13Marion Wright Edelman said,
12:16we don't have a money problem.
12:18We have a profound values and priorities problem.
12:22That is what is afflicting us here in Georgia.
12:25I see some amazing Democratic leaders in our state legislature here.
12:29Please raise your hand, our state legislators.
12:32Thank you so much.
12:34And these are public servants who have been fighting tirelessly for years now to expand Medicaid in Georgia.
12:42And I'll tell you what, when we win big this fall,
12:44and when we elect a Medicaid-expanding Governor Bottoms,
12:49we will have the power to expand Medicaid in Georgia.
12:55It makes a difference who represents us.
12:58Let me just draw the contrast for you.
12:59When you all sent me and Raphael Warnock to the Senate,
13:03we stood up to the drug companies and we passed a law that capped the cost of insulin for seniors
13:09on Medicare at $35 a month.
13:14We capped out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions for seniors in Georgia and across the country.
13:19Raphael and I have done everything we can to surge resources to clinics and hospitals across Georgia.
13:25New MRIs, new mobile mammography services, upgraded emergency rooms, upgraded clinics.
13:34Here's the contrast.
13:36Donald Trump and Mike Collins passed the largest Medicaid cut in American history
13:42when 50% of all births in Georgia are covered by Medicaid.
13:4840% of all kids in Georgia are covered by Medicaid.
13:53And listen to this.
13:5470% of Georgia seniors in nursing homes are covered by Medicaid.
14:02Then they attacked the Affordable Care Act.
14:05And just as we warned,
14:08more than a million Georgians have seen their health insurance premiums double
14:12in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
14:16300,000 Georgians have lost their insurance altogether in just the last few months.
14:21I heard from a woman in her mid-50s who weighed tables for a living
14:24who told me that she was losing her insurance in the middle of a cancer fight.
14:30She had chemo coming up and was losing her health coverage.
14:35And again, it's not just the way things are or the way things have to be.
14:39It's a choice that they made.
14:41They wanted to give money and favors to their donors
14:45and we're perfectly happy for working-class and middle-class people in Georgia
14:50and across the country to simply lose their health coverage as a result.
14:53We've already seen one hospital in Georgia, St. Mary's up in Livonia,
14:57to close its birthing unit citing these Medicaid cuts.
15:00So now a laboring mother has to go much further
15:03to get the care that she and her baby need.
15:07This is the central issue in this upcoming election.
15:12We can repeal these Medicaid cuts.
15:15We can restore those Affordable Care Act benefits
15:18to bring down health insurance premiums.
15:20And we can ban these insurance companies
15:22from denying or delaying needed health care
15:25to Georgians and folks across the country.
15:29And you know, Senator Ossoff, one thing I wanted to add is
15:33there are a lot of people who look out and say,
15:35well, why are you in Georgia?
15:37You know, because I represent Maryland.
15:39And the truth is that I think one of the messages
15:41that we're going to have to send in these elections
15:43is to get back to a time where we're in each other's neighbors.
15:47That it means that we care, not geographically,
15:50that is not what binds us.
15:51It is a moral connection that we have as neighbors
15:54that we truly should care whether women in Georgia
15:58have the health care they need or whether our family's in Georgia
16:01or whether Maryland, Alabama, and all across our country.
16:04And I can't wait to re-elect you to make sure
16:08that we are winning majorities in the Senate and in the House.
16:11There are a couple of issues that we've got to get past.
16:13One is an issue that I have worked on regarding uterine fibroids.
16:18This is an issue that affects close to 80% of all American women
16:23by their 50th birthday.
16:25It is a debilitating, painful condition,
16:29often leads also to infertility.
16:31And it is one that women have been told to normalize,
16:34the pain that it just hurts to be a woman.
16:37It is, in fact, something that I don't want to pass on to my daughter,
16:41which is why I have filed the UFITE legislation
16:43to increase federal funding,
16:46to research something that, by the way,
16:48although uterine fibroids, we think about endometriosis,
16:51we think about all of these conditions
16:53that really do not only affect women physically,
16:56but economically, those who have to miss time for work.
16:59But it affects, again, 80% of all women.
17:02But we only assign 0.03% of all federal research dollars
17:08go to a condition that affects 80% of all American women
17:12by their 50th birthday.
17:14I know that that is true as well here in Georgia.
17:16We think about heart disease,
17:18the leading killer of women,
17:20not only in a place like Maryland,
17:22it's also the leading killer,
17:24I'm sure here in Georgia,
17:25it's all across the country.
17:26So these are issues that we're going to have to continue to fight
17:29to make sure that we are also giving specific attention
17:34to these conditions, diseases.
17:36I want to know, for example,
17:37why two-thirds of all Alzheimer's patients are women.
17:41I think that's something that we ought to research
17:43and we ought to assign dollars for.
17:45So I look forward to working with you
17:46when we gain the majority
17:48and when sense and sensibility returns,
17:51when we believe in science again and medicine,
17:53that we're able to fight some of these battles as well together.
17:59And in fact, I should mention that Lupita Nyong'o
18:02is going to be here in Georgia tomorrow.
18:05She's helping to lead the fight regarding fibroids.
18:07So now I want to ask you another question
18:11regarding economic, really, inequality.
18:14Recent research indicates that
18:16since the start of Trump's second term,
18:18Black women have experienced disproportionately high rates
18:21of job loss due to the president's harmful economic policies.
18:26Let's talk about what we are doing to close this gap
18:29and ensure economic equity.
18:32I have to tell you how harmful
18:34and how hurtful it was to learn
18:36that over 300,000 Black women
18:39lost their jobs last year
18:41between February and July alone.
18:46And it was done in silence.
18:48And so I wonder, you know,
18:49if you can talk a bit about closing the gap
18:51and this economic inequality
18:54that we are seeing across our country.
18:56Well, look, they made their intentions clear from the start
19:01by attacking and trying to defund
19:06any federal program
19:08whose purpose was to make American prosperity inclusive.
19:13I mean, here we are in Atlanta
19:17where Maynard Jackson had the vision
19:24to understand that by giving Black Georgians
19:27a seat at the table,
19:29he could make this state's economy an engine
19:33for the creation of generational Black wealth
19:35and support Black business ownership
19:39and entrepreneurship
19:45opening up opportunities to contracting
19:48that had been denied and denied and denied
19:51by the same old patronage networks
19:54that have been in power here for decades and decades.
19:59That's one of the things the Trump administration
20:00has attacked head on.
20:02For example, right here at the airport,
20:03you've all seen it.
20:04They've been going after Black-owned businesses
20:06at the airport.
20:07I don't know if you all saw
20:08what they did down in Thomasville, Georgia,
20:12but we passed a law that created an opportunity
20:15for Thomasville,
20:16which is a majority Black city in South Georgia,
20:19to apply for some federal grants.
20:22And Thomasville won.
20:24And this is a big deal for a small rural city
20:27that hadn't gotten much love
20:29from the federal government.
20:30They won a federal grant
20:33to help build a new health clinic
20:36and to help upgrade their water
20:38and sewer infrastructure.
20:41And this was the biggest news in the city.
20:44They were going to get down to work.
20:45They were going to help open this new health facility.
20:49Trump administration comes in,
20:51cancels the grant.
20:54And the head of the EPA who canceled it,
20:58he was testifying before a committee I sit on.
21:01And I was pressing him.
21:02I said, I said,
21:04Administrator, this was a huge win
21:06that was celebrated in Thomasville.
21:08It's a new health clinic.
21:10It's upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure.
21:13Why did you cancel this grant?
21:18Here's the code he used.
21:21He said, well, they decided it didn't align
21:23with the administration's priorities.
21:26And then we dug a little bit deeper
21:27and we found out what that meant.
21:29It was because in the grant,
21:33the word equity had appeared.
21:38So they're doing it in plain sight.
21:41And so it's no surprise
21:43who is bearing the brunt
21:45of the economic pain,
21:47the broad, across-the-board economic pain
21:49that's resulting from their mismanagement
21:51and incompetence.
21:52This is the cruelest
21:54and most arrogant group of people
21:57who have ever ascended to high office
22:00in modern American history,
22:01but their cruelty and their arrogance
22:03are matched by their incompetence.
22:06Okay?
22:12Just look what is happening right now
22:14in the Middle East.
22:17Did you all see this week
22:19Pete Hegsath
22:20in front of that committee?
22:23Did you all see that?
22:31But, you know,
22:32the president was down here
22:34a couple days ago
22:39while he was speaking.
22:44The president was down here
22:45a few days ago
22:46and, you know,
22:49the people close to him know,
22:51folks in Washington know,
22:53everybody across the country
22:54can see that he's lost
22:55a couple steps.
22:56All right?
22:58But
23:01we've got Americans
23:04coming back from overseas
23:06in flag-draped coffins.
23:09In the last two weeks,
23:11nearly a hundred wounded in action.
23:13At least four killed in action.
23:16In a war
23:18that they lied us into.
23:21They told us
23:22there was an imminent nuclear threat.
23:24A year after they told us
23:26they'd obliterated the threat.
23:28They told us
23:29in the second week
23:30they'd already destroyed the enemy.
23:33They told us
23:34over and over and over again
23:36that they'd won,
23:37that they were about to win.
23:39They've changed
23:40the objectives.
23:42They keep telling us
23:43it's going to last
23:44just a couple more days,
23:45just a couple more weeks.
23:50And all of this incompetence
23:52is costing lives
23:53and it's costing families
23:55across the country economically
23:56who are dealing with
23:57these out-of-control tariffs,
23:58who are dealing with gas prices.
24:00Just think about this.
24:01In the last couple of months
24:03here in America,
24:04rent,
24:05groceries,
24:06health care,
24:07and a meal out at a restaurant
24:09all hit their all-time highs
24:12in American history.
24:14And to your question,
24:16here is what
24:17I'm going to continue to do.
24:19I'm going to make sure
24:20that communities here in Georgia
24:22who have been excluded
24:24for just about ever
24:26have a seat at the table.
24:28Have a seat at the table.
24:30And that's what I've been doing.
24:31And we've been making sure
24:35that when we write
24:36the federal budget
24:38that those who have been
24:40denied opportunity
24:41have access and opportunity
24:43to federal resources,
24:44whether it's workforce development,
24:45infrastructure,
24:46public health,
24:47upgrades to hospitals and clinics.
24:49That's the work
24:50I'll continue to do
24:50to make sure that
24:51every community in Georgia
24:53has the opportunity
24:54to thrive and to create wealth.
24:57All right.
24:58Well, they tell me
24:58that I have,
24:59I'm getting the signal over here.
25:00I've got one more question.
25:01So let's end it here.
25:03You know,
25:04I want to pivot
25:04to the ongoing attack
25:06on voting rights
25:08that we have seen
25:09from the president.
25:10Last week,
25:11Trump laid groundwork,
25:12we believe,
25:13to take over elections
25:15to avoid accountability
25:17for the impact
25:18of the policies
25:18that you just discussed.
25:21And, you know,
25:22as you mentioned,
25:22he was unfortunately
25:24here in Georgia
25:25two days ago
25:26as one of the persons
25:28here said lying.
25:30Now, I want to know
25:31what do you make
25:32of the attacks
25:34and how can we push back
25:36on his efforts
25:36to undermine
25:38Georgians' voting rights?
25:40Well, I think that
25:41they are building
25:42a wave of defiance
25:43and determination
25:45across our state.
25:47I think that they are
25:47making a huge mistake.
25:49I think that come this fall,
25:51Congressman Lewis
25:52will look down
25:53from on high
25:54and he will hear
25:55the sound
25:55of feet
25:57marching to the poles
25:58in unprecedented numbers
26:00and he will say
26:00job well done
26:01to all of us
26:03for not being
26:04deterred
26:05or intimidated
26:06because they want you
26:07to feel like
26:07it's futile.
26:08They want you
26:09to feel like
26:10the fix is in.
26:11They want you
26:12to feel like
26:13you don't have
26:13the power
26:14that you do have.
26:15Our power
26:16as Georgians
26:17is right there
26:18just waiting
26:18for us
26:19to pick it up.
26:20And we are going
26:21to win
26:23so decisively
26:25that no dirty tricks,
26:27no half-baked scheme
26:29hatched in the Oval Office
26:31can foil the will
26:31of the people.
26:32Let's be clear
26:34that there is
26:36there is one person
26:37who tried to commit
26:39election fraud
26:40in Georgia
26:40in 2020
26:41and 2021
26:42and it was Donald Trump
26:43when he called up
26:44Brad Raffensperger
26:46and demanded
26:47that our Secretary
26:48of State
26:49quote
26:49find him
26:5011,780 votes
26:51the exact number
26:53of votes he needed
26:54to win in a state
26:54that he had lost.
26:55So he is making
26:56his intentions
26:56very clear
26:59but it's up
26:59to all of us
27:01to instead
27:02of being deterred
27:04to be determined
27:06and to do
27:07everything we can
27:08over these
27:09next five months
27:10to send
27:11an absolutely
27:13unmistakable message
27:14about what Georgia
27:15stands for.
27:16Y'all ready to do that?
27:20Well I want to
27:21first of all
27:22say thank you so much
27:23what an incredible
27:24this super bad women
27:26who have come out today
27:27we are so
27:28grateful to
27:29to all of you
27:30want to also again
27:32say thank you so much
27:33to Ryan Wilson
27:34and the gathering
27:36spot here
27:36the retreat
27:37for hosting us
27:39and to Senator Ossoff
27:41we've got your back
27:42well
27:43and we are
27:44looking forward to
27:45sending
27:46I heard them say
27:47there was a tsunami
27:48that flowed through here
27:50during the primary
27:51of people coming out
27:53of people coming out to vote
27:53and they haven't seen
27:54anything yet
27:55so I want to again
27:56encourage everyone here
27:57to make sure that we are
27:58contacting who
27:59Lottie Dottie
28:00and everybody
28:01and letting them know
28:03that we expect to see them
28:05we have due business
28:06to tend to
28:06in this election cycle
28:08and that we're going to
28:09show up in numbers
28:10they have not yet seen before
28:11so thank you so much
28:12and we're grateful
28:13and we're grateful to you
28:13Angela
28:13and you are looking
28:14right here
28:15at the most powerful
28:15team in Georgia
28:16this is the group
28:17of people who
28:18picked me up
28:18and picked Raphael up
28:19and you carried us
28:20on your shoulders
28:21to victory
28:23and let's give it up
28:24for Senator Ossobrooks
28:25thank you so much
28:26for your leadership
28:28thank you all
28:28thanks so much
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