Georgia Dems normally raise $10,000 for this House seat. This April they'll have $3 million.
Georgia Dems normally raise $10,000 for this House seat. This April they’ll have $3 million.
The anti-Trump resistance movement is about to get its first big electoral test.
Updated by Jeff Stein Mar 27, 2017, 9:00am EDT
ROSWELL, Georgia — On a sunny Sunday in mid-February, Karley Barber, 54, spends her morning and afternoon going door to door for Jon Ossoff, the leading Democrat running for the Georgia House seat vacated by former Rep. Tom Price, Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary.
Clipboard in hand, she laughs nervously as she marches up the steep gravel path to the first house on her list. She raps twice on the wood door frame, and shivers with a nervous jitter as someone inside approaches.
“I’ve never done this! What if they slam the door in my face?” says Barber, a government contractor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 7,000 people have already volunteered for Ossoff’s campaign, and he has raised more than $3 million — unprecedented numbers for the congressional district.
The April 18 special election in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District is Democrats’ first chance to eat into Republicans’ House majority — and potentially preview the 2018 midterm elections. “Normally, a Democrat running for Price’s seat would be lucky to raise $10,000 to $20,000,” says Phil Lunney, legislative liaison for the Fulton County Democrats. “There’s been nothing like it here, at least in the 21st century.”
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http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/27/14977018/jon-ossoff-georgia-sixth
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if more Georgians "discovered" their true political selves as a result of this crisis--and their guts. I've often wondered how many of the well mannered people I know in Georgia are secretly at least leaning liberal, socially at least, and of those how many would actually know it. But unlike mine, this is not your typical strongly conservative, largely rural Georgia district.
From the Atlantic Journal Constitution:
Here’s a look at how presidential and congressional candidates have performed in the district since 2000:
Something different happened in November. Many conservative voters chose Hillary Clinton for president. Donald Trump only won the district by 1.5 percentage points even as GOP District 6 incumbent Tom Price won by 24 points.
The reason for the ticket splitting likely lies in one key demographic. The 6th District, which includes part of Atlanta and its affluent northern suburbs, is loaded with college graduates. Education level was a major indicator in the 2016 presidential election. Exit polls showed college graduates favored Clinton 52 percent to 43 percent, while voters with less than a bachelor’s degree favored Trump 52 percent to 44 percent. Traditionally, the spread on these votes has been much closer. About 60 percent of 6th District voters are college graduates, compared with 29 percent of Georgia voters. The district is generally whiter, wealthier and has more Asian and Hispanic voters than the state. Here’s a look at the district’s demographics compared with the state.
The question is will District 6’s anti-Trump vote filter down into a congressional race where the candidate may be a different type of Republican, or will it remain a GOP stronghold? The answer could foreshadow what will happen in the 2018 elections.
Had my door knocked on bu Ossoff's people yesterday.
I'm going to hit the phones for him later this week.
