Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District Tuesday, providing a much-needed lift to President Trump and GOP majorities in Congress.
Handel fended off a furious challenge from the Democrats, winning a vacant seat in suburban Atlanta that has been in GOP hands since future House Speaker Newt Gingrich won it in 1978.
Her victory over Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker whose campaign was fueled by more than $23 million financed by energized liberals who were motivated by their strong opposition to Trump, is likely to quell Republican nerves across Washington.
The party has been under siege, dealing with a special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that could implicate Trump and struggling to move legislation to partially repeal Obamacare.
Ossoff fell short despite Trump’s low approval ratings and frustration with the Republican majorities on Capitol Hill, derailed by GOP attacks about his residency — he did not live in the district and couldn’t vote for himself — and that a vote for him was a vote for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a reviled figure on the Right.
Ossoff also failed to capitalize on his financial advantage. Republican groups collectively kept Handel’s underfunded campaign competitive with millions invested in television advertising and field operations. Handel, 55, is the former Georgia secretary of state.
Trump narrowly won the upscale, white-collar seat in November, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton there by just 1.5 percentage points, even though Republican Tom Price, now his Health and Human Services secretary, was re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote. Democrats were hopeful that they could parlay Trump’s tepid support into victory.
Tuesday’s loss means the Democrats failed to win any of this year’s special House elections, putting in doubt whether they can flip enough targeted GOP districts next year to win back the majority. Swing suburban districts like the sixth that have traditionally voted Republican but have been slow to embrace Trump, are high on their list.
More than $50 million was invested in this special election, a record amount for a House race. It’s unclear what it means for 2018, when resources will be more evenly distributed among several races.
