Jon Ossoff

By Aiden Pink June 9, 2017

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is maintaining a seven-point lead in what has become the most expensive House of Representatives race in American history.

Ossoff, a former congressional aide and documentary filmmaker, has 51% of the vote in the red-leaning 6th District in the Atlanta suburbs, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Friday. His Republican opponent, former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, has 44%. A poll last week showed the Democrat with only a one-point lead.

Prominent Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, have held the seat for decades, but Democrats hope that Ossoff can ride a wave of dissatisfaction with President Trump, who won the district in November but now only has the approval of one-third of the voters, according to the latest poll. But 45% also said that their views on the president would not affect their vote in the special election.

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Ossoff has raised $24 million, breaking a record for fundraising for one House election. Both sides are expected to spend $40 million, another record — with TV commercial fees alone exceeding the previous mark of $29.6 million.

The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters and had a margin of error of four percent.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

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