Six Lessons From Georgia’s 6th District

Donald Trump isn’t the drag on Republican candidates Democrats have been expecting him to be. Karen Handel won the special House election by 5 percentage points in this suburban Atlanta district that Trump won last year by only 2 points.

It takes more than fired-up voters and angry protests to win an election. You need a majority of voters. The burst of Democratic activity in the Trump era may be similar to the anti-war furor in the late 1960s and early ‘70s that didn’t lead to electing Democrats.

Money is overrated in politics. Jon Ossoff raised and spent $30 million, give or take a few million, and lost. David Wasserman, the best analyst of House races, said he aired so many TV ads, he may have created “Ossoff fatigue.”

Democrats continue to have a candidate recruitment problem. They lost a winnable special election in Montana and now one in Georgia. Better candidates could have won both races.

Ossoff did stir excitement among Democrats and the media treated the Georgia 6th as a potential embarrassment to Trump and Republicans. But all that attention also jacked up GOP turnout.

Republicans have developed expertise in running House campaigns. They’re 3-0 in protecting House seats in special elections this year, 4-0 if you also count their victory in South Carolina on Tuesday.