Republican Karen Handel has won the costly and closely watched special congressional election in Georgia's 6th District, a blow to Democratic hopes of pulling off an upset in a district that President Trump only narrowly carried a year ago.
National Democrats will tell you that the race should have never been this close - and that Ossoff even threatening Handel suggests big trouble for Republicans on the ballot next November.
The former Georgia secretary of state won by nearly 4 points, beating Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker and former congressional staffer - 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent.
Mr Trump had earlier tweeted his congratulations to the Republican candidate: "Congratulations to Karen Handel on her big win in Georgia 6th".
The June 20 runoff quickly became the most expensive House race in history, with the campaigns, political action committees and other outside groups raising almost $60 million, according to government reform and ethics group Issue One.
"President Trump's hopes of steadying his presidency and his agenda on Capitol Hill were given a lift Tuesday when a Republican won a special congressional election in the Atlanta suburbs".
Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are locked in a battle to succeed now-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in a race that has been framed by some as a referendum on President Trump.
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Anna Galland, the executive director of MoveOn.org, said Ossoff and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "missed an opportunity to make Republicans' attack on health care the key issue, and instead attempted to portray Ossoff as a centrist, focusing on cutting spending and coming out in opposition to Medicare-for-all". "God, no. But I believe he has the country's best interests at heart", said Jessica Podalsky, who voted for Handel on Tuesday morning. Handel's supporters points to a core of backers who have followed her through thick-and-thin as well.
Republicans, meanwhile, can now breathe a sigh of relief with the knowledge that they can still win in the kind of affluent, educated districts that often favour Democrats - even with a president who has divided voters in their own party.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan also congratulated the Republican candidate, one of the first senior Republicans to comment on her victory.
Addressing supporters in Atlanta, Ms Handel specifically thanked United States president Donald Trump in her victory speech, prompting cheers from the crowd.
"It's that fighting spirit, that perseverance and tenacity that I will take to Washington", she said on Tuesday night.
Everyone knew the Democratic base was ginned up beyond belief at the chance to send Trump a message about his performance in the first 150 days of his administration.
In the end, though, it wasn't enough, and the longtime GOP-lean of the district was too much for Ossoff to overcome.
Democrats wanted a win in the House special election in Georgia Tuesday.
Those trends leave Democrats hopeful they can win a House majority next year.
Handel devoted much of her speech to thanking national and state Republicans for backing her campaign before making a direct appeal to Ossoff's supporters. The people who turn out to vote in a June 20 special election runoff - two months (!) after the initial vote - are hardcore partisans.
There is very little evidence that the campaigns helped many people decide who to vote for. Ossoff grew up in the district but now lives just outside the border near Emory University, while his fiancee finishes medical school.
"Tonight I stand before you, extraordinarily humbled and honoured at the tremendous privilege and high responsibility that you. have given me", Handel told a boisterous crowd that chanted Trump's name. Handel was a known - if not beloved or maybe just be-liked - figure in the district thanks to her time in statewide office and her repeated unsuccessful runs for other offices.
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