Jon Ossoff Extends His Lead To 7 Points As Georgia Republicans Flee GOP Candidate

Yet another new poll of the upcoming special election in Georgia’s 6th congressional district shows that Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is extending his lead over Republican candidate Karen Handel.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey, Ossoff leads Handel by a sizable seven percentage points – one of his largest leads yet with just 10 days until voters in the district go to the polls.

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It is the second time that a public poll has shown Ossoff with a 7-point lead over Handel, who are competing to replace HHS Secretary Tom Price in a June 20 special election for his old district in the Atlanta suburbs. The polling average shows Ossoff ahead by 2 or 3 points.

 

“The common denominator is that Ossoff is floating right around 50 percent. So then where’s Karen Handel, is the obvious question,” said Mark Roundtree, a Republican consultant whose own firm released a poll Thursday that showed Ossoff with a slight lead over Handel, 50 percent to 47 percent. “Obviously, it’s competitive, but there aren’t any public polls that have shown Handel winning.”

Even worse for Handel is that it appears voters in her own party are jumping ship and supporting the Democrat. According to the poll, 13 percent of Republican voters – an impressive showing in such polarizing times – plan to pull the lever for Ossoff, while she only attracts three percent of Democratic voters.

Overall, voters in the district don’t think really highly of the Republican Party in general.

When it comes to a key voting bloc – independent voters – Ossoff is winning 50 percent, despite the fact that this demographic typically leans to the right in Georgia.

While the race is likely to be closer than the poll indicates, Ossoff is consistently performing well – and holding a steady lead over his opponent – in a district that Donald Trump won in 2016 and the previous GOP House candidate won with 62 percent of the vote.

With Trump’s approval rating plummeting in the wake of constant scandal and a potential obstruction of justice case, voters are rightly starting to hold GOP leaders accountable for aligning themselves with him.

If Democrats can pick up this House seat on June 20, Republicans should start to panic about what it will mean for their 2018 chances.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.