By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Today, Tuesday, June 20, 2017, voters in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District go to the polls to decide whether to elect Karen Handel (R) or Jon Ossoff (D).
On Saturday, June 17, 2017, Shelby County Republican Party Chair Joan Reynolds told the Shelby County Republican Women that the Mighty Alabama Strike Force had recently spent four days campaigning door to door for Republican, Karen Handel.
Reynolds said that this has been a Republican district for years; but the polls have had this very close and some polls have him up. Reynolds said we left Alabama on Sunday (June 11) and came back on Wednesday (June 14) after working in the Marietta area.
Reynolds said that the Mighty Alabama Strike Force will be doing the same thing in these senatorial races next year. Since 2008 GOP activists from Alabama have been deployed ten or more times including to: Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida.
Shelby County Republican Women Chair Dawn Ray said that 95 percent of Democrat Jon Ossoff’s money has come from out of State.
Reynolds said that $23 million has been raised on behalf of Ossoff. Handel has raised just $5 million. Reynolds warned, “If money talks…..”
Karen Handel said recently, “I know my opponent has a lot of money, but my money is on you, the grassroots.”
Handel in a statement, “These are the elections that will decide the course of our Conservative Majority and President Trump’s first year in office. Everyone in the world is watching these races. The liberal elites are determined to give President Trump and our Conservative Majority its first loss since 2016. I’m determined to deny them this pleasure.”
GOP strategist Karl Rove said in an email, “The Left is placing everything into making the two remaining special congressional elections a referendum on our conservative agenda. I see two things happening: We win: Democrats and their left-wing allies turn against each other, giving us a better chance to maintain the majority in the midterms. Or, We lose: Democrats gain momentum in criticizing our agenda and the upper hand in their effort to destroy our majority in the midterms.”
Republicans have recently been hitting on Ossoff for not living in the District, although the law does not actually require that a Congressman live in the District which he or she represents.
President Trump said on Twitter, “Big day tomorrow in Georgia and South Carolina. ObamaCare is dead. Dems want to raise taxes big! They can only obstruct, no ideas. Vote R”
The Sixth Congressional District seat became vacant when President Trump appointed then newly re-elected incumbent Rep. Tom Price as his Health and Human Services Department head.
Georgia has been heavily targeted by national Democrats as a Red State that according to polling data and changing demographics could switch to being a Blue State. Those efforts to turn Georgia were unsuccessful in both the 2016 and 2014 elections.
