The General US Politics Thread

Early voting for the June 20 contest between Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff began Tuesday and runs through June 16.

Already, 24,476 votes in the race have been recorded through Wednesday evening, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

While the average turnout during off-year special elections is notoriously low, Georgia’s 6th District special election on April 18 (which decided who was in this month’s runoff) topped a respectable 37 percent — nearly 194,000 people voted. That’s a turnout that looks more like a midterm contest than a special election.

Another possibility is that voters already know who they want to vote for and are casting early ballots to get it over with.

Todd Rehm is a Republican consultant who loves his wife, dogs and numbers – possibly in that order.

His daily website, Ga Pundit.com, this morning includes this note:

As of the latest absentee voter file from the Secretary of State’s office, 33,957 early and advance votes have been cast to date in the Sixth Congressional District Special Runoff Election:

Cobb………6,709

De Kalb……9,991

Fulton…..16,897

That number for De Kalb is alarming.

In early voting, Democratic-heavy De Kalb is punching well above its weight, while early voting in Cobb lags behind. That’s a clear sign that the Ossoff campaign has a competent turn-out system in place.

These early numbers are in no way definitive. Voting habits can vary according to party, and Republicans tend to prefer Election Day balloting. But if you’re a member of the Handel team, they could be a cause for concern – especially given last night’s WSB-TV poll:

Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are separated by less than two points in a poll released Thursday by WSB-TV, the latest survey showing the June 20 runoff for Georgia’s 6th District is going to be a nail-biter.

The poll showed Ossoff leading Handel 49.1-47.6, well within the poll’s 4 percent margin of error. Only 3 percent were undecided, a sign of the total saturation of the race for the suburban Atlanta district.

Riffing on the 1979 hit “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” [Handel] compared House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi – a favorite foil of the GOP – with a certain horned character: “Nancy is coming down to Georgia. She’s looking for a seat to steal.”

She added, rhyming: “Well, Nancy, my name is Karen. And it might be a sin. But I’ll take your bet – you’re going to regret – because Handel is gonna win.”

Her speech to the Georgia GOP convention ended with the Charlie Daniels Band song playing as she walked off stage.

Her speech was heavy with red-meat attacks, including a reference to comedian Kathy Griffin that provoked applause.

“Our mission remains constant: And that is to elect Republicans and advance conservative principles and ideas,” Handel said. “Our opposition, they are determined. They are united. United in their anger, united in their intolerance to anyone who would dare disagree with them.”

At a Friday night GOP fundraising dinner, Handel echoed the same themes, telling the crowd that Democrats “want this state badly.”

“I see the opposition. They’re not here tonight, but I see them every day on the campaign trail,” said Handel. “Let me tell you they’re determined. They’re also kind of angry.”

She closed: “On June 20, Nancy is going to get a rude awakening. Because we will have kicked some Ossoff.”

Abrams, who heads her party’s caucus in the Georgia House, said that as governor she’ll embrace the same knack for compromise with Republicans who have controlled the statehouse for more than a decade when she sees common ground. But she said she would stick to a fiercely progressive agenda on some of the biggest partisan divides, including efforts to restrict abortion or pass “religious liberty” legislation she views as discriminatory.

To emphasize that point, her announcement coincided with formal endorsements from Emily’s List, the influential left-leaning group, and Democracy for America, a progressive PAC with about 1 million supporters across the nation.

“Georgia is ready for a Democratic governor. My success demonstrates that difference doesn’t have to be a barrier,” Abrams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Southern politicians have to reject a notion that difference is a barrier and that we can’t all be committed to progress and equality.”

Abrams faces a fellow state legislator, Stacey Evans, in the Democratic primary of the wide-open race to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal. Four Republicans are already running: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sens. Hunter Hill and Michael Williams.

Abrams said she’ll campaign on a pledge to expand the state’s universal pre-k program, which now serves 80,000 4-year-olds, to also include 3-year-olds. She would urge schools to teach computer science courses earlier and back legislation to make technical college courses tuition-free.

“It’s about finding innovative ways to invest with what we have,” she said of how she would pay for it, adding that she’ll spend the next few months touring the state to talk with residents and community leaders to hone her policy.

Abrams might be best known nationally for the New Georgia Project voter registration group that she founded. It aims to register hundreds of thousands of left-leaning voters within the next decade – and has become a favorite target for state Republicans.

The Democratic primary is shaping up to be an all-women contest that could determine the direction of the party: Should it appeal to moderates and independents who have drifted to the GOP, or should it double-down on mobilizing liberals?

Supporters of Evans, a Smyrna attorney who announced her campaign last week, hope she can attract voters in metro Atlanta’s fast-changing suburbs that once reliably voted Democratic.

Abrams also talks of broadening the party’s base, but one of her biggest strengths may lie in the traditional supporters of the Democratic Party: Black women make up the biggest bloc in Georgia’s Democratic electorate.

In the interview, Abrams said the state’s changing demographics – Georgia is expected to be majority-minority by the mid 2020s – will give Democrats a tantalizing opening next year.

Mark Taylor lost the 2006 race for governor by about 400,000 votes. Jason Carter lost in 2014 by about 200,000. The key to closing that 200,000-vote deficit, she said, is showing how Democrats can “change the trajectory of the state” forever.

“We can be a state that expands on our progress and is bold and imaginative. Or we can continue to serve only those that are privileged and leave people out,” she said. “I not only have the commitment to this type of service, I have the background and experience to make it work.”

I'm going to say it. What an attention whore. And pulling out the victim card? Really? She just looked unhinged the whole time. "Oh I'm being bullied because I'm a woman! Because im a comedian! Me me me!"

When conservatives poin to rich liberals who live in a bubble ivory tower this whole thing is one of the best examples I can think of.