By: David R. Cohen, Michael Jacobs, Patrice Worthy, & Sarah Moosazadeh
The outcome keeps alive the possibility of Georgia’s first Jewish congressman since Democrat Elliott Levitas lost a bid for a sixth term in 1984.
Voters in the 6th, which sweeps from East Cobb through North Fulton into North DeKalb and covers as much as half the population of Jewish Atlanta, are likely to see millions of dollars spent by national interests portraying the election as a referendum on Trump and such Democratic opponents as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
That national focus had a dramatic effect in the campaign leading up to April 18 as 11 Republicans, five Democrats and two independents competed for votes on the same ballot.
With the early endorsement of Rep. John Lewis (D-Atlanta), Ossoff, 30, a former congressional aide to Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Lithonia), emerged as the choice of national Democrats dreaming of flipping a district that had voted Republican since 1978. National progressive organizations such as website Daily Kos and End Citizens United helped Ossoff raise $8.3 million through the end of March, doubling the fundraising record for a Georgia congressional race.
In response, the National Republican Congressional Committee spent millions to tie Ossoff to Pelosi, mock his youth and point out that he can’t vote for himself because he lives outside the district. Although Ossoff grew up in the district in DeKalb, where his parents still live, he moved a 10-minute drive south of the 6th so that his girlfriend, an Emory medical student, could be closer to the university’s Clifton Road medical complex.
End Citizens United said the more than $7.4 million was spent on ads attacking Ossoff, most of it from super PACs and the NRCC, not individual candidates.
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