Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in a closely-watched special House election Tuesday night, the Associated Press projected.
The loss was a disappointing setback for Democrats, who had hoped to capitalize on President Trump’s low approval ratings to win the long-standing Republican seat. It was also the fourth straight loss this year for Democrats in their attempts to win a Republican seat and take the momentum into the 2018 midterms. They now must win 24 GOP seats to retake control of House.
“This race was going to require all hands on deck, and that’s what we had,” Handel said at her victory party.
Republicans also held onto the House seat in South Carolina vacated by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney. Millionaire developer Ralph Norman, the Republican, defeated former Goldman Sachs tax adviser Archie Parnell, the Democrat, according to the Associated Press. Mulvaney resigned in February to join the Trump administration.
The Georgia race smashed fundraising records for a House contest. The campaigns for Handel and Ossoff, along with outside groups, spent a record $50 million.
The 30-year-old Ossoff, who lives just outside the district, failed to win the seat in April. But he was a top-two finisher in an 18-candidate field along with Handel, which landed them in Tuesday’s runoff.
“Thank you for the most extraordinary process that I have ever been a part of,” Ossoff told the crowd at this post-race event. “The fight goes on. Hope is still alive.”
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Republican candidate for 6th congressional district Karen Handel speaks at a campaign event where she was joined by House Speaker Paul Ryan in Dunwoody, Ga., Monday, May 15, 2017.
(AP Photo/David Goldman)
The sixth congressional district seat, which covers suburban Atlanta, has been occupied by Republicans since 1979. GOP Rep. Tom Price gave up the seat in February to become Health and Human Services Secretary.
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.
With Republicans expected to keep their South Carolina seat, Democrats pinned their last hopes on Ossoff, a first-time candidate, documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide.
Ossoff tried to thread the needle in the conservative-leaning Georgia district, appealing to Republican voters 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.
However, Trump has repeatedly warned voters that Ossoff, if elected, would increase taxes and be soft on national security.
“Ossoff, who wants to raise your taxes to the highest level and is weak on crime and security, doesn’t even live in district,” Trump tweeted hours before polling stations opened.
While Republicans have held the 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 has 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.
Both parties attacked each other for the amount of out-of-state money they collected.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis showed just 3.5 percent of Ossoff’s donations between the end of March and May came from Georgia.
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In this June 6, 2017 file photo, candidates in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District race Republican Karen Handel, left, and Democrat Jon Ossoff prepare to debate in Atlanta.
(AP Photo)
Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, continued Tuesday to tout her experience as a state and local elected official and argue that outside forces are trying to buy the seat.
Voters “are not interested in Hollywood and California coming in and buying this seat,” she said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
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 House Speaker Paul Ryan, have spent millions on her behalf.
On Monday night, Ossoff told voters: “Politics does not have to be about fear and hate and deception and division,” avoiding mentioning Trump directly, as is his custom, but blistering “those cynics in Washington, D.C.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
