Georgia runoff seen as Trump test

Democrat narrowly misses win in conservative House district

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A narrow miss by a Democratic newcomer in a conservative U.S. House district in Georgia has triggered a runoff that’s shaping up as a referendum on President Donald Trump and the limits of the backlash against him.

Democrat Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old former congressional aide fueled by fundraising from out- of- state donors, came within 2 percentage points of an outright majority win Tuesday in an 18-candidate field in Georgia’s traditionally Republican 6th Congressional District.

In second place in the special election, but lagging far behind with just under 20 percent of the vote, was Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state well known to voters. Handel had treated Trump gingerly in a district the president barely carried, but declared Wednesday that she’d like to see him campaign for her ahead of the June 20 runoff.

“We want everybody who is supportive of Republicans, so absolutely,” Handel said after taking a congratulatory call from Trump on Wednesday morning. “We are going to be united from this point going forward.”

Trump, who attacked Ossoff in recent days as a liberal shill and mocked him for living outside the district, crowed Wednesday on Twitter about the outcome in Georgia after Democrats’ failure to win a different special election in Kansas last week.

“Dems failed in Kansas and are now failing in Georgia. Great job Karen Handel! It is now Hollywood vs. Georgia on June 20th,” Trump wrote, alluding to celebrity donations that came in for Ossoff.

Both major parties are approaching the runoff in Georgia as an important test ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. Democrats have a long-shot chance of taking back control of the House next year and breaking the GOP’s monopoly control of Washington. But it will require picking up more than 20 seats and winning over droves of voters like those in the affluent, well-educated Georgia district that spans Atlanta’s northern suburbs.

DuBose Porter, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, said the 6th District offers the perfect setting for state and national Democrats to prove their momentum heading into 2018. “If we can get over 50 percent in this district, we know we can do that statewide and around the country,” Porter said, mocking Republican assertions that Ossoff failed Tuesday by falling short of an outright primary victory.

“Only the Republicans could try to define this as a defeat for the Democrats,” said Porter.

At the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer tried to do exactly that. “The reaction has somewhat been, you know, that they almost won. No, they lost!” Spicer said. “They spent $8.3 million and threw everything including the kitchen sink at it, and lost.”

Spicer did not mention that outside Republican groups also plowed millions into attacking Ossoff and encouraging GOP turnout; a political action committee backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other House GOP leaders accounted for at least $2.2 million.

As for whether Trump will campaign with Handel, Spicer said: “We’ll see if we’re needed.”

Yet despite such rhetoric, other Republicans saw clear warning signs for the party in Tuesday night’s outcome. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of House leadership, said congressional Republicans must start showing that they can lead after the failure of their health care legislation, or risk voters snatching away their majorities.

“The Democratic base is totally engaged, totally fired up, and anybody that thinks that is going to go away I think is whistling past the political graveyard,” Cole said. “The only way you fight that is you have to fire up the Republican base. And to do that, strangely enough, you have to govern.”

For his part, Ossoff said for weeks that his goal was to win outright Tuesday. But he rejected any notion that he lost. “We have defied the odds … shattered expectations,” Ossoff said, and he urged his supporters to embrace the prospects of a runoff, telling them they would “carry us to victory.”

The winner in Georgia will succeed Republican Tom Price, who resigned to join Trump’s administration as health secretary. Republicans have held the seat since 1979, and past occupants include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson. Price won 62 percent of the vote in November, and Democrats pointed to Ossoff’s success in cutting into the GOP’s most recent showing as evidence the Democrat can win the runoff.

More tests await in the weeks to come, with special elections approaching in Montana and South Carolina in May and June.