Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Either it is, or …
The special Georgia congressional election today in the suburban district immediately north of Atlanta turns out to be legitimately enormous.
Either Democrats can cash in on Donald Trump’s outrageous ineptitude and the Republican meanness on health care, or they can’t.
Either Georgia, driven by changing Atlanta suburban demographics, is moving from Alabama-style redness to swing-state status like North Carolina, or it isn’t.
——————
Polls suggest the race is razor-thin close. That alone would be a big story either way except that Democrats have invested so much in the race— and behold such a confluence of hopeful factors—that the conclusion if they lose will be that they remain hapless Southern losers.
Getting 49.9 percent will mean nothing for Democrats. Getting 50.1 percent will mean everything.
If 30-year-old documentary filmmaker and political aide Jon Ossoff wins for the Democrats, word will go forth that:
● Major suburban areas of the solidly red South are blue-ing.
● Trump is hurting Republicans everywhere.
● The health-care issue is a loser for Republicans even in the district formerly served by Tom Price.
You know Tom Price. He’s the man Trump plucked from Congress to head the Health and Human Services Department and undo Obamacare. He tabbed Price partly because Republicans were confident they could spare him in Congress because the vacant seat was a certain hold for them in the special election.
If Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel wins today as a bland and mediocre Republican nominee, then word will go forth that Trump is survivable for the GOP, that Obamacare repeal and replacement is survivable too, and that the Democrats took their best shot and spent obscene amounts of money and yet remain unable to close a deal in the red sea of the solid South.
This district unfolds northward they settle at home again, this time for a fellow Republican woman who is not much offensive herself?
Polls suggest that a few thousand of them will make the difference.
Neither of the candidates is anything special. The race is big and portentous all out of proportion to their respective political strengths. It’s all about the broader implications.