Ossoff, Handel Threatened With Violence Before Special Election

Jon Ossoff

By Nathan Guttman June 15, 2017

Both sides in Georgia’s special election — the most expensive House race in American history — have reported violent threats made against them.

Democrat Jon Ossoff issued a statement Thursday saying that threats against the campaign have intensified in recent days and were reported to police. Ossoff did not describe the nature of the threats. “These events speak to the need to redouble commitment to civility and unity,” the campaign stated.

His Republican rival, Karen Handel, reported Thursday that several of her neighbors received packages and envelopes containing an unknown white powder. “The packages contained threatening letters and a suspicious substance. The police were quickly notified and [the] street is now being blocked off,” Handel wrote on her Facebook account.

Here is content of letter neighbors say went out in Handel’s neighborhood. “Several” went out, says a woman in hoodhttps://t.co/frQGdICBip pic.twitter.com/B0BWku7eEU

— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 15, 2017

Politicians on both sides have had to contemplate heightened security procedures after Rep. Steve Scalise was shot Wednesday while practicing for Thursday’s annual Congressional Baseball Game.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO