Former Congressional candidate Ossoff moves to Brookhaven

Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who drew national attention this year in his unsuccessful 6^th Congressional District campaign, has moved to Brookhaven.

“I love Brookhaven,” Ossoff said in an interview. “I’ve always loved Brookhaven. It’s great to be just a few minutes from the place where I grew up [in DeKalb County’s Northlake community].”

Ossoff lost to Republican Karen Handel in June’s epic Congressional election, where his residency outside the district became a campaign issue. Most of Brookhaven is within the district, but Ossoff declined to comment on whether the move is part of another potential run against Handel in next year’s midterm elections. He has previously not ruled out a campaign; meanwhile, Democrat and former TV anchor Bobby Kaple has announced a run as well.

Handel’s campaign issued a fundraiser email to supporters treating Ossoff as if he were a candidate. It included a mock welcome card and the line, “Jon – thank you SO much for joining us in the sixth district. We can’t wait to beat you again!”

During the campaign, Ossoff said he was living about one-and-a-half miles outside the district, near Emory University, so that his fiancée, Alisha Kramer, could easily get to her medical school classes there. He said he intended to move into the district — which locally includes parts of Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs — after the election. The U.S. Constitution has no district residency requirement for Congressional candidates.

Handel criticized Ossoff as an outsider whose out-of-district residency meant he could not vote for himself. Ossoff countered that he was born in Atlanta and raised in the district, while Handel is a Washington, D.C.., native raised in Maryland.

In the interview, Ossoff confirmed an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that he is now living in a Brookhaven apartment because Kramer is now doing coursework “overseas,” not on the Emory campus. He declined to comment further on the record.

In a previous interview, Ossoff said he is back at work as CEO and managing director at Insight TWI: The World Investigates, a documentary filmmaking company specializing in investigative journalism about corruption and organized crime.