Dems fail to flip seat as Handel wins in Ga.
Closely watched House race was priciest in history
Republican Karen Handel won Georgia’s special election Tuesday, keeping in GOP hands a seat Democrats had hoped would be the first of a trend of retaking control of the House.
Democrats had been pinning their hopes on Jon Ossoff — a 30year-old documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide — against the former Georgia secretary of state.
Leading up to the election, polls gave Ossoff a slight edge. Most political experts saw the race as a tossup and said turnout would be critical.
Georgia doesn’t often have competitive congressional races. In fact, out of the last 69 races since 2008, just one was decided by a margin less than 5 points, according to an analysis by Smart Politics.
“This is not the outcome any of were hoping for, but this is the beginning of something much bigger than us.,” Ossoff told supporters Tuesday night. “We showed the world that in places where no one thought it was even possible to fight, we could fight.”
Tuesday night in South Carolina, Republican Ralph Norman won the special election to replace Mick Mulvaney who became the head of the Office of Management and Budget, according to the Associated Press. Norman’s win over Democrat Archie Parnell made it the third special election where Democrats failed to capture a Republican seat this year. The South
Carolina race was expected to go for Norman and received far less attention than Georgia’s, but the race turned out to be closer than expected.
Early results in Georgia bore out the predictions of a tight race as the lead shifted back and forth between Handel and Ossoff.
A record-breaking $23 million poured in for Ossoff. Handel had not released her most recent fundraising numbers.
Multiple analyses put the race at more than $50 million in total, including spending from outside groups.
Ossoff had the support of more than 11,000 volunteers, according to his campaign, but it didn’t prove to be enough. In particular, some suburban women who felt frustrated by the results of the 2016 election decided to volunteer for him. One mom told USA TODAY she has knocked on more than 1,500 doors to convince people to vote for Ossoff.
Handel, who has run for both the Governor’s Mansion and the Senate, had a series of high-profile supporters such as Vice President Pence and former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue campaigning in the district.
President Trump helped raise funds on her behalf and gave his support on Twitter. He took credit on Twitter by tweeting out a Fox News quote: “Thank you @FoxNews ‘Huge win for President Trump and GOP in Georgia Congressional Special Election.’ ”
While Tom Price — who is now Health and Human Services secretary — won the district by more than 20 points in November, Trump won by less than 2 points.