The GOP holds on to House seats in special elections

by Steve Dunford

Karen Handel in her victory speech last night. (Atlanta Journal Constitution photo)

In a congressional race that had national attention, Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat John Ostoff  52% to 48% in a hotly contested Georgia 6th District race.

Handel will take the seat of Tom Price, who resigned to join President Donald Trump’s cabinet as health and human services director.

A record was set in this race for the most money spent on an election.  The national democratic party poured money into Ostoff’s campaign.  They wer counting on a win to declare a referendum on President Trump being unpopular with voters.

It is noteworthy that former Speaker of the house Newt Gingrich, and Ben Jones, who used to play Cooter Davenport on the Dukes of Hazzard, held this seat at one time.  Jones was a conservative Democrat who caucused with the Republicans on several issues.

In the fifth congressional district in South Carolina, Republican Ralph Norman defeated Archie Parnell 52%-48%.  This seat was formerly held by Mick Mulvaney, who took the positon of Office of Management and budget director for the Trump administration.

President Trump sent out several tweets regarding the victories last night.  I will share all of them in the future on the newly created franklincounty-news.com Twitter page.  Search for it under Franklin County News.

I am going to share one tweet that stands out:

“Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN are 5 and O! All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0”

Information from the Washington Post and Atlanta-Journal constitution contributed to this story.