By: Lauren McCauley
In the closely-watched race for Georgia’s sixth district, said to be the first test of whether backlash against President Donald Trump will propel Democratic candidates to seize traditionally conservative seats, documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff continues to gain ground, putting the GOP on the offensive in other pivotal local contests.
After 10 days of early voting for Georgia’s special election to fill the House of Representatives seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Democratic voters substantially outpaced Republicans, New York Times‘ Upshot reporter Nate Cohn observed this weekend.
Ossoff announced last week that he raised an astounding $8.3 million, which NPR notes has “allowed him to dwarf his opponents on air and build an impressive field organization that’s put him just within reach of winning with a majority outright on April 18—a nearly unthinkable feat in an 18-candidate field.”
“I’ve never seen the Democrats around here so engaged, and it’s Donald Trump who got us so engaged,” Carolyn Hadaway, a veteran Democratic Party activist from Marietta, Georgia, told Reuters.
And as the candidate himself said during a recent interview the Washington Post: “The grassroots intensity here is electric, and it’s because folks are concerned that what is happening in Washington doesn’t represent our values…This is a chance for this community to stand up and make a statement about what we believe.”
As Reuters reported Monday:
Grassroots Democratic groups flood the district’s tidy suburban neighborhoods on the weekends, busing in volunteers from as far away as Maryland to go door to door on Ossoff’s behalf.
The Ossoff momentum worries Republicans, say party officials, and outside help has arrived. A super PAC aligned with House Republican leaders put more than $2 million into ads painting Ossoff as too young and inexperienced.
Further, the Post noted:
Georgia Republican Party mailers darkly warn about Ossoff’s work for the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera TV network. (The mailers print the network’s Arabic name on a black background, resembling the flag of ISIS.) The National Rifle Association warns, in drawling radio ads, that Democrats want to “steal this election and your freedom.”
The NRA advertisement was deemed so misleading that one local radio station was forced to edit out one of the statements attacking Ossoff as an outsider, according to the Daily Kos, which, it should be noted, is supporting the candidate with a national fundraising effort.
Ossoff’s national supporters are also getting in on the media blitz. The pro-democracy group End Citizens United is launching an online advertising campaign this week that will promote Ossoff as a candidate who will “help end the rigged campaign-finance system, taking on special interests and calling out pay to play in Washington.”
MoveOn.org Political Action on Monday began running television and digital advertisements in Georgia as part of a six-figure campaign focused specifically on Ossoff’s support for maintaining and improving the Affordable Care Act, which the GOP recently tried to dismantle.