This article at Politico has a nice rundown of some of the history, evolving demographics, and economic issues in Georgia’s sixth congressional district, where a special election today holds the real possibility of a Democrat either being elected in place of Republican Representative Tom Price, who has joined the Trump administration, or forcing a runoff against a Republican candidate. Democrat Jon Ossoff is benefitting from being in one of the few ongoing races right now that allow Democratic rank and file to show their displeasure with the president; Ossoff has received more than $8 million in contributions from upwards of 200,000 donors, most of them from out of state. As the article points out, that amount of money approaches what is spent on senate runs in Georgia, and has allowed Ossoff to plaster the district with unprecedented levels of advertising (at least for a Democrat).
The Hot Screen is particularly struck by the ethnic diversity of the district — 30% of the residents are non-white, and 21% of the populace wasn’t born in the U.S. For those who are used to thinking of races in the South as often orienting along a black-white continuum, these are eye-opening figures. And such numbers don’t bode well for a G.O.P. that has decided that its central electoral strategy is to make itself the party of white Americans. At the same time, a deep delve into the particularities of this district should be a reminder that every district is unique, and that a one-size-fits-all approach to politics is inadequate. As the Democrats have had hammered home to them in the last several election cycles, demographics is not destiny; people aren’t just going to vote for them because the other party has signaled its disdain for the color of their skin or their country of origin.
This Georgia contest comes after last week’s special election in Kansas, where the Democratic candidate ran close to his opponent despite the fact that Donald Trump had won the district by almost 30 points. What happens in Georgia Tuesday will be another important piece of the story of how electorally significant the backlash against Trump is, and whether it can help put otherwise Republican-safe seats in play come 2018.
