Georgia Voting in Closely Watched Congressional Election

Voters in the southern U.S. state of Georgia are choosing their new representative in the House of Representatives on Tuesday in a special election that is being closely watched as a test of Republican strength under the Trump administration and the party's prospects of holding its majority in House next year.

The importance that both Republicans and Democrats placed on the race is evident in the money spent on both sides, more than $50 million, an amount that is by far the most ever in a congressional race.

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is a 30-year-old former congressional staffer running in his first election who won an initial round of voting in April, but fell just short of the threshold needed to win the seat outright.

His Republican opponent is 55-year-old Karen Handel, Georgia's former secretary of state.

Whoever wins will take over the seat that Republican Tom Price won just last November by 23 percentage points before President Donald Trump tapped him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump barely won in the same district, topping his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by one percentage point. The president posted a number of messages Monday on Twitter criticizing Ossoff and urging voters to support Handel.

Polls ahead of Tuesday's vote indicated the race virtually tied, signaling a huge shift from the vote for the same seat seven months ago, and one that Republicans have held since 1979.

No matter who wins, there will not be any significant, immediate impact on the workings of the House with Republicans holding a 45-seat majority entering Tuesday. They are also expected to win another special election being held Tuesday in South Carolina.

But with Democrats looking next to the 2018 mid-term vote, in which every House seat is up for re-election, a win in Georgia would be a start toward capturing the 24 or more seats they will need to take back a majority.

A Democrat won a special election earlier this year in California, but that seat had been vacated by another Democrat. Republicans similarly kept control of two of their seats that went to special elections by winning special elections in Montana and Kansas.

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