Democrats say Jon Ossoff's 48 percent showing in a Republican stronghold is proof that they're actually making progress toward making Georgia a genuine battleground.
What are the factors playing into the competitive and expensive race for a House seat in Georgia?
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters tells reporters aboard Air Force One that Karen Handel's win serves as proof that "the American people are resonating with the president's agenda" and want to see his agenda enacted.
Handel won about 52 percent of the vote to quell the upstart phenomenon of Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old Democrat who raised more than $23 million, much of it from out of state. While it's always unsafe to analyze the results of special elections at too granular level and use them as guideposts to how the national electorate will vote a year and a half later, there are a few major findings that the Democratic Party would ignore at their own peril. Tuesday night was a double disappointment for the party - not only did they lose in the Georgia 6th, but they also came up short in South Carolina's 5th district. Handel supporter John Salvesen attributed her more comfortable margin of victory over Ossoff to Republicans determined to defeat a candidate they considered representative of national Democrats - with some encouragement from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Democrats must defend their current districts and win 24 Republican-held seats to regain a House majority next November.
Billionaire Moshiri to spearhead Everton’s Italian job
Indeed, it is only by virtue of Falcinelli’s prowess in the final third that Crotone still remains in contention to survive. In Romelu Lukaku, Koeman has a player with the capability of firing Everton to far headier heights than seventh place.
He doesn't expect the district's leanings to change in the coming years either, betting that its makeup of well-educated and well-off voters will give Republicans "with a strong platform, a good history and a good record" a path to victory. The special election was held to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price after Trump appointed him as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She said she has told Democrats to stop focusing on Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. He added that there's been "a ton of emotion" in a district used to watching Republicans coast.
A former Georgia secretary of state, Handel emphasized throughout the campaign that she has lived in the district for 25 years, unlike Ossoff, who grew up in the district but lives in Atlanta, a few miles south of the 6th District's southern border.
And Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, remarked that "we had no business winning those districts" due to their GOP allegiance.
She's both unpopular and, for a congressional figure, relatively well-known. The Republican campaign establishment, however, helped make up the difference. You had Democratic lawmakers themselves tossing this out as the reason for Ossoff's loss. But it won't be Jon Ossoff. "And I will work just as hard to earn your confidence in the weeks and months ahead".
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