Handel avoids upset bid to win costly U.S. House seat
Republican DUNWOODY, GA. — Karen Handel won a nationally watched congressional election in Georgia on Tuesday and avoided a major upset after the most expensive House campaign in U.S. history.
Her victory over Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District comes after Republican special congressional election wins in Montana, Kansas and, also on Tuesday, South Carolina.
Republicans are claiming momentum ahead of the 2018 midterms, but each race was much closer than expected.
Those trends leave Democrats hopeful they can win a House majority next year. They need to flip 24 GOP seats.
The 55-year-old Handel is a former Georgia secretary of state who built her professional and political career after leaving an abusive home as a teenager. She succeeds Republican Tom Price, who resigned to join President Donald Trump’s administration as secretary of health and human services.
Early returns showed the tight race that was expected in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, where Republicans on Tuesday were trying to stave off a major upset ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
The 6th District seat had been in Republican hands since 1979, and Ossoff, a 30-year-old first-time candidate,
Republican Ralph Norman won a special election Tuesday to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney when he became White House budget director, battling to a victory closer than many expected.
“It’s a good win, and we’re excited,” said Norman, a real estate developer who aligned himself with President Donald Trump.“We’re looking forward to getting to work in Washington.”
Norman, who celebrated his 64th birthday on election night, defeated Democrat Archie Parnell with 51 percent of the vote. Three third-party candidates also waged campaigns.
Republicans hoped to extend their hold on the district, where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in November by more than 18 percentage points. Surrogates like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint campaigned with the former state lawmaker, who also received support during a seven-way primary and ultimate runoff from conservative groups like the Club for Growth.
Democrats took interest in the race, too, with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez campaigning with Parnell. was hoping for an upset that would rattle Washington.
The matchup became a test of GOP strength early in Donald Trump’s presidency, prompting unprecedented spending, a deluge of advertising and out-ofstate volunteers, and more than a few tweets from the White House.
Handel and Ossoff tried to say this race wasn’t about Trump or Washington, but the president and the GOP agenda on Capitol Hill dominated the campaign.
Attorney David Ware said he voted for Ossoff because the Democrat defended the Affordable Care Act — President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Handel and Trump want to overhaul it.
“We have a chance to make a decision about who’s going to lead us whether the president is there or not there, whether his policies are good or bad,” said Ware, 63, an attorney.
Ossoff is a former congressional staffer turned documentary filmmaker who became a symbol of the antiTrump movement. Yet Ossoff barely mentioned Trump during the campaign, talking instead in generalities about “restoring civility” and Congress’ oversight role.