Ossoff, Handel in runoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District

ATLANTA — After missing an outright win by less than 2 percentage points, Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, will face former Georgia secretary of state Karen Handel, a Republican, in a runoff election June 20 for the 6th Congressional District of Georgia seat.

The seat was vacated earlier this year by Tom Price, who resigned to take the position of secretary of Health and Human Services with the Trump administration.

Democrats are targeting the seat, saying switching it from its longtime hold by Republicans would be repudiation for the Trump presidency. Trump, who won the district by a single percentage point in his election against Democrat Hillary Clinton last November, weighed in against Ossoff in the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote.

With a crowded field of 18 candidates — 11 Republicans, five Democrats and two independents — Ossoff, whose occupation is listed as an investigative filmmaker, was named on 93,911 of the 193,483 ballots cast in the three-county district, which had an overall turnout of 43.5 percent for the special election. That gave Ossoff, who needed a simple majority to win outright, slightly more than 48.5 percent of the votes cast.

Ossoff’s total exceeded the total of the top four GOP candidates combined. Handel was second in the field with 37,993 votes, or 19.6 percent of the total cast, to qualify for the runoff.

Ossoff, a former aide to 4th District U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, was unable to vote for himself Tuesday because he lives outside the 6th District. While a congressman must be a resident of the state to represent one of Georgia’s congressional districts, he or she does not have to reside within the district itself.

Handel, who heads up Handel Strategy Group and had unsuccessful runs for governor in 2010 and the U.S. Senate in 2014, says she hopes Republicans, who also narrowly held on to what had been considered a “safe” congressional district last week in Kansas, will rally around her after the heated race. Bob Gray, a Republican who finished third in the race with 20,755 votes, tweeted that she had his support.

“We are going to rally behind Karen Handel. We wish her Godspeed,” he tweeted.

Price, a Republican, had held the 6th District seat since 2005, when he succeeded Johnny Isakson, who became U.S. senator. He also tweeted his support for Handel. Before Isakson’s tenure in the district, it was held by New Gingrich from 1979-99. Gingrich won the seat after John James Flynt Jr., the last Democrat to represent the district and who had turned back two challenges by Gingrich, decided against seeking re-election in 1978, ending a congressional career that started in 1954.

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