New Poll: Tie in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District Special Election Despite $23 Million Raised by Democrat

A new poll charting the battle to replace Rep. Tom Price in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District special election that will be held on June 20 shows the race between Jon Ossoff, the Democrat, and Karen Handel, the Republican, is tied. This is despite the $23 million that Ossoff has raised for his campaign, the vast majority of which has come from out-of-state:

Ossoff, a Democrat, and Handel, a Republican, are tied at 47%, with 6% of voters undecided, in metro Atlanta’s 6th congressional district race, a contest that has become a virtual must-win for both parties on June 20.

“The findings underscore the fact that this race really comes down to turnout,” said Emory political scientist Andra Gillespie. “Both campaigns need to get as many volunteers on the phones and out in neighborhoods reminding voters to turn out on Tuesday. The campaign that has the best organized get-out-the-vote operation will be the one who likely wins this race.”

The 11Alive poll of 700 registered voters in the district was conducted by Survey USA between June 7 and June 11, “503 of whom were identified by SurveyUSA to have already voted in the runoff or to be certain to do so before the June 20 deadline.”

The poll was disappointing news for Ossoff, as 11Alive.com reported:

Three weeks ago, an 11Alive/SurveyUSA poll had Ossoff 7 points ahead of Handel. This latest poll includes fewer high-school educated and fewer lower-income respondents than did the previous survey.

In what is now the most expensive Congressional race in American history, the most current Federal Election Commission records show that as of May 31, Ossoff has raised $23 million for his campaign, while his Republican opponent, former Georgia Secretary of State Handel, has raised only $4.5 million.

As Breitbart News reported last week, the special election was “once described as a bellwether test of the Trump administration’s policies,” but has now turned into “a record-setting budget buster whose outcome may tell us more about each party’s ability to mobilize its base nationally than actual voter sentiment about the president.”

With one week to go until the election, that assessment appears to continue to hold true.