The Congressional District 6 race is heading to a June 20 runoff election between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel. The two were the top vote-getters among 18 candidates on April 18 (11 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and two independents) seeking to replace Republican Tom Price. Tom Price resigned his Congressional seat to be sworn in as United States Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 10.
Ossoff received 48.1 percent of the vote, just short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win the seat, so he will face Karen Handel, the top Republican vote-getter, in the June 20 runoff. Ossof earned 93,911 of the 193,483 ballots cast in the three-county district, which had an overall turnout of 43.5 percent for the special election. That gave Ossoff, who needed a simple majority to win outright, slightly more than 48.5 percent of the votes cast. Handel was second in the field with 37,993 votes, or 19.6 percent of the total cast, to qualify for the runoff.
Ossoff, whose occupation is listed as an investigative filmmaker, was also a former aide to 4th District U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson. For more information about Jon Ossof, visit election.com.
Former Georgia Secretary of State and former chair of the Fulton County commission, Karen Handel, heads up Handel Strategy Group. For more information about Karen Handel, visit karenhandel.com.
This article originally appeared in the June/July issue of the EAST COBBER magazine, on page 26. Click HERE to access the digital edition.
