WASHINGTON (JTA) — Karen Handel, a Republican, won a congressional race in Atlanta’s suburbs, defeating Jon Ossoff in a contest that Democrats had hoped would wound Donald Trump’s presidency.
Handel defeated Ossoff, 52.1 to 47.9 percent, with all of the vote reported.
Ossoff, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker who is Jewish, had come just over a percent short of the 50 percent of the vote he needed in an April 18 open primary to take the seat without a runoff. Handel, 55, is a former Georgia secretary of state.
The race is believed to be the most expensive in congressional history, with an estimated $50 million pouring in, mostly from outside the state.
The seat was vacated by its longtime GOP incumbent, Tom Price, after Trump tapped Price as his Health and Human Services secretary. In November Price beat his Democratic rival by 20 percentage points, while Trump eked past Hillary Clinton in a mostly Republican district.
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