Jon Ossoff

By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 19, 2017

Democratic congressional hopeful Jon Ossoff missed the threshold for outright victory in a special election in Georgia’s sixth district on Tuesday. Now experts he faces a tough runoff in the staunchly Republican state.

In June, he face Karen Handel, a Republican who once served as Georgia secretary of state and has run unsuccessfully for Senate and Governor in Georgia. All signs point to a nail-biter.

At the polling website 538, Harry Enten writes that Handel is the favorite — “by less than a point.”

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The New York Times, in its story on the race, notes that while Handel has a recent history of serial defeats in her statewide races, she should expect to receive “nearly unlimited resources from Washington Republicans” in advance of the June contest.

A Fox 5 Atlanta poll published April 14 found that Ossoff led Handel in a notional runoff, 42% to 41%.

Meanwhile, the president weighed in with his own message on the race on Wednesday morning.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com

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