High-stakes referendum on Trump takes place today

Pressure is high for both GOP, Democrats to win in Georgia

ATLANTA — Taking the stage in a half-filled airplane hangar to rally supporters of Republican candidate Karen Handel, Health Secretary Tom Price could not help but point to the record-shattering surge of liberal money that has flooded into the special House race here.

“The out-of-state money is crazy,” said Price, whose vacated congressional seat is up for grabs today.

Following Price, Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary and a former Georgia governor, was even more direct. “I know some of you out there, some Republicans may even be turned off by our president,” said Perdue, before making the case for his boss.

The two Trump Cabinet secretaries, both Georgia Republicans, had unwittingly revealed the twin hurdles standing in Handel’s path heading into today’s election: Democratic enthusiasm is soaring across the country while the sort of pastel-and-polo-clad Republicans who reside in this district are uneasy about what they see in Washington and have decidedly mixed views of President Donald Trump.

The hard-fought battle for Price’s seat in Atlanta’s northern reaches has not only become a financial arms race — by far the most expensive House contest in history — it has evolved into one of the most consequential special elections in decades.

Republicans, weighed down by Trump’s growing unpopularity, must demonstrate they can separate themselves from the president enough