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Poll: Ossoff Up By Seven Points In Georgia House Race

   DailyWire.com

A new poll shows that the Democrats are ahead in the upcoming runoff special election for Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s Georgia House seat.

The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, shows that the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, is leading the Republican candidate, Karen Handel, 51% to 44%. An additional 6% were listed as undecided.

Allahpundit highlights at Hot Air that the party affiliation breakdown is showing that Democrats and Independent-leaning Democrats were firmly behind Ossoff while more centrist voters were not behind Handel. The breakdown starts at Handel and moves toward Ossoff and then undecideds:

The same holds true in the poll’s breakdown of political ideology:

Clearly, Ossoff benefits from having the Democrat’s rabid base and more moderate voters behind him whereas Handel doesn’t do nearly as well among moderates and Independents.

If the polls hold true when the runoff election happens on June 20, then the Democrats will claim it as a YUGE victory against President Trump, especially since the election is in a Republican-leaning district. There is certainly evidence in the poll to suggest that Trump is weighing down Handel, as SurveyUSA’s write-up of the poll notes:

Donald Trump’s approval rating in the district is 34%. His disapproval is rating is 51%. Voters are split on the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. Voters are narrowly opposed, 6:5, to the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

By 2:1, voters in GA-06 say a special prosecutor should be named by the Department of Justice to look into possible foreign interference into the 2016 American Presidential Election. About 35% of interviews had been completed by SurveyUSA before the Justice Department did just that.

Allahpundit also notes that the polls suggested that Handel would narrowly prevail over Ossoff a couple of weeks ago. The fact that Ossoff’s up by seven points now suggests that the myriad of negative news stories toward President Trump following the firing of Comey have had a negative effect on Handel’s poll numbers.

If that is the case, then the Republicans should be very nervous about the 2018 midterms. Erick Erickson recently suggested in a column that the Republicans should distance themselves from Trump as much as possible in order to hold onto both Houses of Congress in 2018; Handel may need to follow that advice in order win the special election.

Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.

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