A House Democrat who unseated a Republican incumbent in 2018 by a single percentage point is ahead with less than 100 days before their rematch.
Rep. Lucy McBath leads former GOP lawmaker Karen Handel in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, 48% to 46%, according to a National Republican Congressional Committee poll by North Star Opinion Research. Another 7% of voters remain undecided, the survey found. The same firm had McBath trailing Handel in March, 47% to 49%.
Pollsters said two-thirds of respondents in the traditionally conservative stronghold believed the country was on the wrong track due to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, with 27% feeling the opposite. That’s a double-digit increase from March when there was a 52% to 45% divide.
Yet, the study also found 11% of respondents had no opinion of McBath. Another 20% revealed they’d never heard of her.
“Despite a spring and summer of difficult health and economic news, Karen Handel’s long service and familiarity with the district makes her well-positioned to win back the seat, especially considering the make-up of the electorate this year versus 2018 when she lost by just a point,” North Star Opinion Research’s Jon McHenry and Whit Ayres wrote in a memo to the NRCC.
Handel, an ex-businesswoman and Georgia secretary of state, was elected to Congress by north Atlanta and counties further north in a 2017 special election to replace then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. McBath ousted her by less than 4,000 votes 18 months later in one of the biggest political upsets of the 2018 midterm elections.
North Star Opinion Research surveyed 400 voters registered in Georgia’s 6th District between July 26 and July 28 via landlines and cellphones. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 points.
