Voting in Georgia
Democrat leads congressional race but will face GOP foe in runoff.
DUNWOODY, Ga. — Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are headed to a June 20 runoff in the contest for the longtime Republican- held seat in the suburbs north of Atlanta.
But because of technical difficulties in the elections office of Georgia’s most populous county, it was not clear when final results in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District would be available.
Ossoff had sought to parlay opposition to President Donald Trump into a victory that would rebuke the White House and embolden Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
With all of the votes counted in Cobb and DeKalb counties and partial returns from Fulton County, Ossoff hovered near the majority threshold required to win an 18- candidate primary outright. Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, was in a distant second, but comfortably ahead of her Republican competitors.
A spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp confirmed that Fulton County officials were having difficulty reading memory cards from voting machines. That left uncounted tens of thousands of votes, though Ossoff’s support was lagging in Fulton County.
Ossoff addressed his supporters late Tuesday before the runoff was announced.
“No matter what the outcome is tonight, whether we take it all or whether we fight on, we have defied the odds … shattered expectations,” he said.
The winner succeeds Tom Price, who resigned to become Trump’s health secretary.
With 185 of 210 precincts reporting, Ossoff had 48 percent of the vote and Handel had 20 percent; Republican Bob Gray was holding the next- highest vote total with 11 percent.
Trump took to Twitter urging Republicans to cast ballots late Tuesday. He even mocked Ossoff’s choice of residence — outside the district.
“Just learned that Jon Ossoff, who is running for Congress in Georgia, doesn’t even live in the district. Republicans, get out and vote!” the president wrote.
The contest is testing both parties’ strategies for the coming national election cycle. Democrats are expected to have a better shot at snagging the typically Republican seat than they did in last week’s closer- than- expected GOP victory in a Kansas special House election.
Trump did not perform as well as other Republicans in November in the Georgia district, an affluent, well- educated area filled with the kind of voters Democrats are likely to need if they hope to reclaim a House majority next year. Republicans currently hold a 238- 193 advantage in the chamber.
Ossoff would be a “disaster” in Congress, Trump declared earlier Tuesday on social media, a day after he blasted the “super liberal” Democrat as a champion of criminals, higher taxes and unchecked immigration.
Despite Trump’s Twitter barrage, the White House insisted the race isn’t about the president. “I wouldn’t use the word referendum,” said spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “I think he hopes to have a Republican elected.”
An investigative filmmaker, Ossoff raised more than $ 8.3 million, mostly from donors far from the northern suburbs of Atlanta. That sum dwarfs what any Republican candidate has spent on the contest.
Ossoff has energized liberals and younger voters, while also aiming for disaffected independents and moderate Republicans.
Cedrick Gulley, 25, a Georgia State University student from the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, compared the 30- yearold Ossoff to former President Barack Obama and Sen. Cory Booker, D- N. J. Gulley said Tuesday that they all “make me feel like my generation is being heard.”
He added that Democrats were “a little lazy” in November, but now “there’s an emergence of people fighting.”
Ossoff has pledged to fight Trump when he “embarrasses” the country. But he’s also said he would “work with anybody in Washington who respects your tax dollars.”
That still wasn’t enough for voters like Matt West, 45, a financial planner from Roswell.
“He lives outside the district, he’s a Democrat, and I just don’t believe that he’d stand up to [ House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi if the district wanted him to,” West said. West said he voted for Handel.
Republican groups ran a blitz of ads trying to tie Ossoff to Pelosi; a political action committee backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan has spent more than $ 2 million on those and other attacks.
As for residency, Ossoff concedes that he lives just south of the district, in Atlanta, so his girlfriend is close to her work at Emory University’s medical complex.
National Republicans say any of the four competitive GOP candidates could defeat Ossoff in a second round. They predicted conservative voters would be energized in a Republican vs. Democrat scenario, making it harder for Ossoff.
“Republican voters are not going to sit by and let this district go to a Democrat,” Handel said at one of her final campaign stops.
Information for this article was contributed by Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press.