Trump Cabinet officers urge on Republicans in Georgia race

CHAMBLEE, GA. » Trying to stave off a major upset ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet officers returned to Atlanta’s traditionally conservative suburbs and urged Republican voters to maintain the GOP’s monopoly control in Washington.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a former twoterm Georgia governor, took sharp aim at Republican Karen Handel’s opponent in Tuesday’s congressional runoff election, 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has raised more than $23 million from people around the country hoping for a victory that could turn the tide on Trump.

“This is a race for the heart and soul for America,” Perdue told Handel supporters, casting Ossoff as a puppet of national Democrats and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

“The leftists have gone and typecast and they’ve picked this young man — charismatic, articulate — and they’ve taught him a few Republican buzzwords,” Perdue said. “They think he can fool you. It’s not gonna happen.”

But it very well may, with polls showing a tossup in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, where Republicans usually coast.

Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide, has aimed at the center, usually avoiding even mentioning Trump’s name. But he was campaigning Saturday with civil rights icon John Lewis, the Atlanta congressman from the neighboring 5th district whose criticism of Trump recently drew a slew of presidential tweets.

The candidates’ choices on the final weekend of campaigning reflect their expectations of a razor-thin margin that will turn as much on core partisans as on persuading moderates and independents.

The results will be seen as a measure of how voters feel about Republican leadership months into the Trump presidency. Trump barely won this well-educated, affluent district in November, despite previous Republican nominees here eclipsing 60 percent.

Perdue defended Trump as “a true populist,” but acknowledged that even “some Republicans” are “turned off” by him.

Health Secretary Tom Price, whose resignation to join Trump’s Cabinet prompted this special election, urged voters to have a “crazy turnout” on Handel’s behalf. He reminded his former constituents of the district’s GOP pedigree, electing eventual Speaker Newt Gingrich and future U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson before sending Price to Washington for 12 years.