All eyes were on Georgia Wednesday night as Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the effort to win the 6th District Congressional seat. Trey Hood is a professor at the University of Georgia's School of Public Affairs, or SPIA. He says the race didn’t live up to the hype.
" I don’t think it’s what everyone expected, but it turned out to be pretty anti-climatic, at least for me. And now looking back on things, maybe, you could say, it’s just exactly what should’ve been predicted," according to Hood. " A Republican winning a very Republican leaning district."
The 6th has been reliably republican since 1979, and while there was certainly no shortage of money in the most expensive congressional battle in U.S. history, Ossoff just didn’t have enough supporters.
"He far outspent Handel, Ossoff did. In that particular district, there just weren’t enough Democrats. That really mattered in the end."
Hood says this race may not necessarily be an indication of what to expect in the 2018 midterm elections.
"It’s still close to a year and a half out from the midterm. And you know the old saying is ‘overnight’s a lifetime in politics.’ We’ve got a lot of overnight’s left before the midterm. But of course, it’s very common for the President’s party to lose seats in Congress in the midterm."
Experts estimate more than $50 million was spent on this race.
