Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is seeking to pin the blame on Republicans as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown begins to snarl air travel in his state despite repeatedly voting against funding bills.
Ossoff, who is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent running for re-election, has appeared to embrace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., hardball tactics during the 32-day partial shutdown. The Georgia lawmaker has joined nearly all Democrats in repeatedly voting against full-year DHS funding bills as the party demands reforms to immigration enforcement in exchange for their support for funding the agency.
With the shutdown beginning to wreak havoc on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — the world’s largest — Ossoff is showing few signs of breaking ranks with his party to end the funding lapse. Rather, he has chosen to blame Republicans for the current impasse.
“Senate Republicans have blocked multiple attempts to pass legislation to fund TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and key agencies,” an Ossoff spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Republicans should stop objecting to this common-sense proposal.”
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Republicans have consistently shot down Democrats’ attempts to withhold appropriations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) while funding the non-immigration functions of DHS. However, Senate Republicans insist that all DHS employees must be paid and report to work as the nation faces a rise in terror threats.
Georgia Republicans have sought to tie Ossoff to the travel disruptions at the Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
“It’s because of this temper tantrum being thrown by Jon Ossoff, who is refusing to pay TSA workers to do their jobs,” Georgia Republican Party chairman Josh McKoon told Fox News Digital. “This guy pretends to be for the average working person while he deprives them of the ability to take care of their families.”
The Hartsfield-Jackson airport reported security checkpoint wait times averaging two hours Tuesday morning as a shortage of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees has slowed operations. TSA employees, many of whom cannot afford to miss a paycheck, did not receive their salary on Friday and will not be paid for the remainder of the shutdown.
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The Hartsfield-Jackson airport also experienced more than 500 cancellations Monday as severe weather exacerbated staffing constraints. At least 300 TSA employees have quit their posts since the shutdown began in mid-February, the White House announced last week.
McKoon told Fox News Digital that Ossoff’s posture during the DHS shutdown could be a drag on his campaign heading into November.
“I just don’t think that’s something that’s going to wash for people at election time,” McKoon said. “For him to say, ‘Well, I wanted you to have to wait in lines and miss your flight and potentially … lose your employment, because I wanted to make a political point standing firmly with my good friend: the illegal alien criminal.”
McKoon also argued that Ossoff’s position on the DHS shutdown is in line with the incumbent senator’s decision to toe the party line on major pieces of legislation over the past year. Ossoff aligned himself with Democrats’ shutdown strategy over expiring Obamacare premium subsidies in late 2025 — in addition to voting against Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act and legislation prohibiting biological males from participating in women’s sports.
Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, R-Ga., and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley are vying in a three-way primary contest in May to advance to the general election and face Ossoff. President Donald Trump has yet to make an endorsement.
Several vulnerable House Democrats facing competitive re-election challenges are also holding Republicans responsible for the current DHS funding lapse, despite voting against bipartisan legislation to fund the agency. Just four House Democrats crossed party lines in an attempt to end the standoff earlier in March.
“Why are Trump and congressional Republicans so determined to protect the dangerous and chaotic status quo of ICE that they’re willing to screw over TSA, the Secret Service, FEMA, and the Coast Guard?” Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
“We could end this shutdown today, and we should,” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, said. “All it takes is for congressional Republicans to stop blocking Democrats’ efforts to individually fund DHS functions and work with us to rein in reckless immigration policies.”
Both Landsman and Gonzalez are expected to support a Democratic effort to force a vote on a DHS appropriations measure minus funding for immigration enforcement in the coming weeks.
