Republican Karen Handel Defeats Jon Ossoff in Georgia

Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the special congressional election runoff Tuesday in Georgia. The campaign to replace Tom Price ended up being the most expensive House race in history. With most results in Tuesday night, Handel had 52.6 percent of the vote, compared to Ossoff’s 47.4 percent, according to CNN. Handel’s victory was seen as a major blow for Democrats, some of whom had poured $23 million into Ossoff’s campaign. Georgia’s 6th District has long been a Republican stronghold, but Democrats sought to secure the seat in a show of resistance to President Trump’s agenda. After conceding the election, Ossoff said that while Democrats didn’t get “the outcome any of us had hoped for,” the battle for the seat “is the beginning of something much bigger than us.” Republicans also claimed victory in a special House election in South Carolina, with Ralph Norman beating Democrat Archie Parnell by 4 percentage points.