Jon Ossoff Loses Hotly Contested Georgia Congressional Race
Image by Getty Images
Democrat Jon Ossoff lost a hotly contested Georgia congressional race on Tuesday, CNN reported, fending off a Democratic challenge in a race that was widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.
With more than 65 percent of the votes counted, CNN predicted that Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, would defeat Ossoff, a Jewish political newcomer.
Ossoff, 30, was seeking to wrest control of a suburban Atlanta district that has elected Republicans to Congress since the 1970s.
Total spending in the race topped $56 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group, nearly double the previous record.
The outcome will not alter the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control both chambers of Congress.
But an Ossoff victory would have helped Democrats raise money and recruit candidates as they try to win back control of the House of Representatives in 2018.
The party has fallen short this year in other elections in Kansas and Montana, and it narrowly lost another race on Tuesday in South Carolina.
Democrats thought they saw a chance for victory after Trump carried this affluent, educated district by only 1 percentage point in last year’s presidential election.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
