Georgia’s top child welfare official is accusing Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia of taking a campaign victory lap on foster care while failing to deliver meaningful help for the state agency responsible for vulnerable children.
The clash erupted after Ossoff released his first reelection-season ad, “Our Kids,” which his campaign said highlighted a yearlong bipartisan investigation with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee into abuse, neglect and trafficking concerns inside Georgia’s foster care system.
Candice Broce, director of the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS), blasted the ad in a post on X and in comments to Fox News Digital, saying Ossoff had been “nowhere to be found” in the daily fight to reform the system.
“For five years, I’ve been in the trenches fighting for vulnerable children and foster care reform alongside thousands of DFCS workers,” Broce wrote, according to Atlanta News First. “Trust us when we say Jon Ossoff is nowhere to be found.”
Broce said Ossoff did not secure more DFCS funding, streamline adoptions, fix federal rules affecting group homes or bring more federal support for child advocacy centers.
Ossoff’s campaign fired back, calling Broce an “unqualified partisan hack” and arguing his oversight exposed dangerous failures. His team pointed to the Senate report, which found nearly 2,000 children in DFCS care were reported missing from 2018 to 2022 and at least 410 were likely sex trafficked.
The campaign pointed to Ossoff’s bipartisan REPORT Act, signed into law in 2024, requiring websites and social media companies to report federal child trafficking and enticement crimes to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The fight gives Georgia’s Senate race another sharp edge as Ossoff seeks a second term against Republican Rep. Mike Collins in one of the nation’s most-watched 2026 contests.
