A US Democrat almost claimed outright victory in Tuesday's closely watched congressional primary in Georgia, heading to a run-off in a race Democrats tout as an early test of resistance to President Donald Trump.
Jewish Democrat Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old former congressional staffer, and Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, will meet in the June 20 runoff.
Ossoff will now face off against Handel, who emerged as the second top vote-getter, ahead of 10 other GOP candidates. He tweeted: "Despite major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG "R" win with runoff in Georgia".
The special election in Georgia's traditionally Republican 6th District was called after Trump named its congressman, Republican Tom Price, as health secretary.
Trump, a businessman and TV celebrity elected without having previously held political office, has attacked Ossoff on Twitter, calling him a "super Liberal Democrat" who would "protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes".
The party avoided embarrassment last week when it narrowly held a conservative Kansas seat vacated when Trump tapped Republican Representative Mike Pompeo to head the Central Intelligence Agency. A tweet just before polls closed read: "Just learned that Jon @Ossoff, who is running for Congress in Georgia, doesn't even live in the district".
Democrat Ossoff became the frontrunner on the 18-candidate ballot in a typically conservative district, but he fell short of the majority needed for an outright win.
There are 18 candidates running in the so-called jungle primary - including 11 Republicans and five Democrats - all on one ballot.
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All eyes are on tonight's special congressional election to represent the suburbs of Atlanta, a race that has come to embody Democratic hopes in the age of Donald Trump. Republicans have controlled the seat for decades, but Trump only won it by 1 percentage point in last November's presidential election. It didn't happen on Tuesday night - and now Democrats will have to wait nearly two months to see if they can start to build momentum for the November 2018 midterms.
Still, this is the type of district Democrats need to be competitive in to win back the House in next year's midterms. Winning a two-person race in a historically Republican district, gerrymandered to stay that way by some of the cleverest minds in politics, against an opponent with both name recognition and statewide experience, would be huge upset.
Despite his lack of experience, Mr Ossoff raised a whopping $8.3m in the first quarter, making it one of the most expensive congressional races ever. "Glad to be of help!" wrote Trump on Twitter. Republicans downplayed the implications, saying Ossoff benefited from a cocktail of money, national attention and enthusiasm that's almost impossible to replicate.
Republican campaigners painted Ossoff as a political novice who does not live in the area he aims to represent.
I spoke to several Republican voters in the district who said they'd deserted the party since November.
For Democrats, Ossoff's near win encourages the opposition movement that has flourished since Trump's election.
CBS News etimates showed up to twenty-point gaps between the early and Election Day votes as the county reports came in - perhaps reflecting a late surge in Republican interest in the race and what appears to have been strong, late turnout efforts from the GOP. The California Democrat remains an unpopular figure in the district.
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