Georgia Special Election Loss Could Trigger Democrat Death Spiral
The Democratic Party has been searching for that elusive special election triumph that they can use to launch the narrative that the country has turned against President Trump.
That victory eluded them in Kansas when they lost an open House seat to Republican Ron Estes. God only knows why that Democrats thought that they could be competitive in Kansas but hey, they tried.
The next big opportunity for the signature win was in the recent Montana special election. The Dems rustled themselves up a dude ranch desperado named Rob Quist, a singing socialist cowboy who was supported by Bernie Sanders and had more in common with Karl Marx than Clint Eastwood. But he sure as heck looked good in a a cowboy hat, a cheesy gimmick that smacks of elitist contempt for voters in rural America.
The Democrats’ uphill battle was underlined by a bizarre election eve incident in which Republican candidate Greg Gianforte “body slammed” a pest of a liberal reporter from The Guardian. Dems were licking their chops as their media machine whirred into action and some called for Gianforte to concede.
But alas, Montanans outside of Missoula and Helena could tell the difference between a real cowboy and a phony and the GOP prevailed once again when Gianforte left Quist in the dust on election day.
It was a crushing loss for Democrats who retreated to the deep south and their last bastion of hope, the all-important runoff for the vacated seat of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Georgia’s 6th congressional district.
That hope may be fleeting considering the candidate, an inexperienced, creepy looking Star Wars geek named Jon Ossoff who isn’t ready for prime time and probably never will be.
High-stakes Georgia election puts pressure on Dems https://t.co/BB29othCTZ pic.twitter.com/J53t1BluqO
— The Hill (@thehill) June 4, 2017
According to The Hill “High-stakes Georgia race puts pressure on Dems”:
Democrats are under pressure to pull off a win in Georgia’s open House race, seeing it as their last chance to use a special election as proof of a brewing backlash against President Trump.
The party has pointed to closer-than-expected races in what had been reliably red districts as evidence of rising voter enthusiasm on the left. But Democrats have so far failed to convert that energy into an actual win in this year’s special elections.
Liberal grassroots groups are frustrated by national Democrats’ decision to spend comparatively small amounts in Kansas and Montana races, opting instead to pour money into the Georgia election — now the most expensive House race in history. That ramps up the pressure even higher for Democrat Jon Ossoff to pull off a win on June 20.
“We need this win in Georgia 6, because if Jon Ossoff is victorious, it will create the amount of momentum that we will need to go into the midterm elections,” said Georgia Democratic strategist Tharon Johnson, although he also said what Ossoff has already done is “remarkable.”
This is one that the Democrats should have already had in the bag.
They had a perfect scenario during the original special election with a fragmented field of seventeen other candidates and a boatload of out of state money flowing into Ossoff’s campaign. But alas, the boy wonder couldn’t pull the necessary percentage of the vote to avoid a runoff with Karen Handel in a traditionally Republican district.
Considering the resources and media attention being invested in Ossoff who bears the heavy burden of being “proof” that the country has turned against Trump, it would be an unmitigated disaster if he is unable to close he deal.
It would also be a serious blow to the single issue that Dems are relying on for 2018 – payback against Trump and the Russians – because other than that they have zilch.
The fate of the Democratic party hangs in the balance and a good indication of what to expect will be known on June 20th.
