Republican Karen Handel on Tuesday night defeated rival Jon Ossoff in
Georgia’s record-spending, special-election congressional race, keeping
yet another House seat in GOP hands and denying Democrats a chance to
deliver a rebuke to President Trump.
With all precincts reporting,
Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, led Ossoff 52 percent to
48 percent -- a margin of nearly 11,000 votes out of more than 250,000
ballots cast.
The race smashed fundraising records for a House
contest -- with both campaigns and outside groups combining to spend a
record $50 million.
Ossoff’s defeat was another setback for
Democrats hoping to capitalize on President Trump’s low approval ratings
to win a long-standing Republican seat.
It was the party’s fourth
straight defeat this year in attempts to win a Republican seat and take
the momentum into the 2018 midterms. They now must win 24 GOP House
seats to retake control of the chamber next year.
“This race was
going to require all hands on deck, and that’s what we had,” Handel said
at her victory party. “Tonight’s victory is for you. It’s for every
citizen in the 6th (Congressional) District.”
To be sure, the
contest was close since Handel and Ossoff were the top finishers in
April's first balloting, which sent them to Tuesday’s runoff.
Ossoff
lead by nearly 5 percentage points as recently as June 12, before the
race deadlocked in the final days, according to the
RealClearPolitics.com polls average.
The 30-year-old Ossoff, whose
campaign was hurt by revelations that he didn’t live in the suburban
Atlanta district, thanked his campaign team and voters in a short
concession speech.
“Thank you for the most extraordinary process
that I have ever been a part of,” Ossoff said. “The fight goes on. Hope
is still alive.”
The House seat has been occupied by Republicans
since 1979. GOP Rep. Tom Price gave up the seat in February to become
Health and Human Services secretary.
President Trump didn’t
campaign in Georgia for Handel. But he attacked Ossoff on Twitter for
living outside the district and warned voters that he would increase
taxes and be soft on national security.
Handel supporters chanted
“Trump, Trump, Trump” at her victory party. And the president tweeted
his own message of congratulations.
House Speaker Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., also congratulated Handel, saying, “Karen is all business. I’ve
campaigned with her, and I know how eager she is to get to work. I’m
excited to have her as a partner in the House.”
Ossoff tried to
thread the needle in the conservative-leaning Georgia district by vowing
to cut taxes for small businesses, while championing equal rights for
women and minorities, which earned him the support of civil rights icon
and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis.
Handel touted her experience as a state and local elected official and argued that outside forces were trying to buy a win.
Voters
“are not interested in Hollywood and California coming in and buying
this seat,” she said Tuesday morning on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
An
Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed just 3.5 percent of
Ossoff’s donations between the end of March and May came from Georgia.
Still, Handel also benefited from outside spending, though most didn’t go directly to her campaign.
Groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee backed by Ryan, have spent millions on her behalf.
Also
on Tuesday, Republicans held onto the House seat in South Carolina that
was vacated in February by Mick Mulvaney so he could become the White
House budget director. Millionaire developer Ralph Norman, the
Republican, defeated former Goldman Sachs tax adviser Archie Parnell,
the Democrat, in a closer-than-expected contest.
The other two special-election races this year in which Democrats failed to win a GOP House seat were in Kansas and Montana.
In
Kansas, Republicans held onto the seat of Mike Pompeo, now the CIA
director, and they kept the Montana seat of Ryan Zinke, who became
Trump’s secretary of Interior.
Democrats have one last outside
chance to win a GOP House seat, Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s in a conservative
Utah. The special election is on August 15. Democrats won one special
House election this year, holding onto the California seat vacated by
Xavier Becerra.
While Republicans have held the Georgia seat since
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took it from Democrats nearly four
decades ago, the district does not appear as conservative as in years
past.
Trump won the district over Democrat Hillary Clinton last
year by just 1.5 percent, compared to 2008 when Republican presidential
nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain won by 18.9 percent.
The race attracted national attention and record money, but Georgia voters also took a big interest in the outcome.
More than 40,000 people voted early, including 36,000 who didn't vote in the April contest.