2 GOP lawmakers take seats
Karen Handel is sworn in after winning the closely watched election.
WASHINGTON — The Republican winner of the most expensive House race ever took her seat representing Atlanta’s outskirts Monday evening, along with a South Carolina Republican who claimed a narrower-thanexpected victory to retain a strongly Republican seat.
The dual swearing-in ceremony returned Republicans to full strength in the chamber at 241 seats after the party won four special elections to replace GOP lawmakers who left the House to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
Karen Handel won the closely watched Georgia election by a 52-48 margin last week after a hardfought, saturation-level campaign. Handel’s opponent, first-time candidate Jon Ossoff, raised $23 million for the race and narrowly led in most polls.
“This is an extraordinary honor and the greatest privilege that I think I have ever had,” Handel said in brief remarks after receiving the oath of office from Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. She vowed to be “a good co-worker and friend to each of you.”
Norman told his colleagues that “we’ve got such an opportunity and I look forward to playing a part in working with you to move this country forward.”
Republicans retained all four House seats vacated by lawmakers this year to join the Trump administration, but in every case Democrats outperformed the recent trends in the districts, which were all solidly Republican. The Georgia seat went only narrowly for Trump last year, even though it strongly backed Tom Price, who resigned to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Money poured into the Georgia race, which Republicans won after running ads linking Ossoff to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. After Handel’s victory, some Democrats called for the party to drop Pelosi as its leader.