After GOP Forces Runoff for Georgia House Seat, Trump Says Dems ‘Failing’

The election was for the seat vacated by Republican Tom Price – who won with almost 62 per cent of the vote a year ago – after United States President Donald Trump appointed him Secretary of Health and Human Services.

He garnered 48 percent.

But he fell just short of an outright majority in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat of now-Health Secretary Tom Price, setting the stage for a June 20 face-off against the second-place finisher, Republican Karen Handel.

Pete Korman, 6th District voter, said national enthusiasm for Ossoff has been frustrating to watch, but he thinks Handel will win voters in the 6th. He raised over million, compared with Handel’s roughly $460,000. He will now face a run-off on June 20, with the top Republican, perennial candidate Karen Handel.

The two-candidate race immediately changes the dynamics in the contest. Ossoff led the 18-candidate field.

‶Democrat Jon Ossoff would be a disaster in Congress. Republicans, by contrast, were sharply divided and split their vote among several contenders.

In losing on Tuesday, Democrats now have an uphill battle going forward in their races headed into the midterms.

But she’ll run up against Handel backers like 82-year-old Bev Wingate. He also dismissed Republican claims that he did not live in the district, pointing out that he grew up there and was now living with his girlfriend one mile outside the boundary.

Levell, who worked on Trump’s campaign, got less than 1% of the vote.

Ossoff is sounding equally confident.

He issued a statement after the results were announced: “No matter what the outcome is tonight, whether we take it all or we fight on, we have defied the odds, we have shattered expectations”.

Georgia’s 6th District, which includes Cobb County, Fulton County and Dekalb County, has been held by Republicans since Newt Gingrich took office in 1978.

Ossoff has acknowledged he lives just outside the district, so his girlfriend is closer to work.

The runoff is sure to draw national attention over the next couple of months.

For all the anger, energy, and money swirling at the grass-roots level, Democrats didn’t manage to pick off the first two Republican-held congressional seats they contended for in the Trump era, and the prospects aren’t markedly better in the next few House races coming up: the Montana race at the end of May, and the SC contest on June 20.

Trump criticised Ossoff on Twitter and said in a robocall that the Democrat would “raise your taxes, destroy your healthcare, and flood our country with illegal immigrants”.