Democrat Jon Ossoff is leading in the polls for Georgia’s 6th District Congressional seat by a lot. Currently polling at 46 percent, Ossoff leads the top GOP candidate, Karen Handel, by 28 points. This staggering lead may not be enough for an outright victory, however. Ossoff must capture 51% of the vote to avoid a June runoff. With 18 candidates running for the seat, this is no easy task. Ossoff has the advantage of being the Democrat’s candidate of choice whereas Republican voters are still struggling to choose between four different candidates.
An Ossoff win would be a huge blow to Trump’s already floundering momentum. Once Newt Gingrich’s District, Georgia’s 6th has been a Republican stronghold since the early 1980s. A Democratic win could send ripples of dread throughout the Republican party. With few exceptions, Republicans have stood behind Trump, but may be willing to turn on him for fear of losing midterm elections. The Cheeto-in-Chief himself has weighed in on the election, via Twitter of course, calling Ossoff a “super liberal Democrat,” and trying to stir up the racist fears of his base.
The race has garnered national attention, and money. Ossoff’s campaign has raised $8.3 million. 95% of this is from out-of-state sources, a detail the GOP candidates have glommed onto, calling Ossoff out of touch. The 5% of his funding coming from local sources, $415,000, is on par with the GOP candidates. Further, this “out of touch” candidate has 4,000 active volunteers and a very solid ground game.
Many of Ossoff’s supporters are women who have never actively participated in the political process. These are just the type of voters his campaign needs to achieve their goal of expanding the electorate. Suburban women were particularly disturbed by the election of Donald Trump, and are stepping up in droves to unseat him and his party.
Pundits seemed divided over whether Ossoff could win outright on April 18th, or even in a June runoff election. Unfazed, the Ossoff campaign continues to focus on their get out the vote efforts. They are also running almost continuous ads. Judging from the vitriolic Tweets, Ossoff has already achieved his goal of “Making Trump Furious.” We will have to see if this translate to victory.