Georgia’s Handel Singlehandedly Destroys the Democratic Party

The election was widely seen as an early test of whether Democrats can leverage the resistance to President Donald Trump to flip traditionally Republican districts.

By Colonel Jim Waurishuk, USAF (Ret.)

Republican Karen Handel has won Georgia’s record-breaking special congressional election, defeating Democrat candidate Jon Ossoff for the open House seat in Georgia’s sixth Congressional District, and now essentially dashing hopes by Democrats to pull off an upset in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.

Seen as an early proxy for whether Democrats can flip certain Republican-leaning districts in the President Donald Trump era, Tuesday’s election drew national attention and record cash which flowed in from around the country for the Democrat candidate. Democrats have aimed to leverage what they mistakenly believe and have touted as being Trump’s dismal approval rating, the fake Russian Obstruction of Justice scandal, and of course opposition to the Republican health-care bill, into winning Republican seats and potentially taking control of the House in 2018. It is now becoming more obvious that their campaign is failing more and more.

The loss also show-cases the Democrats continued special election losing streak on what they considered one of their party’s bright hopes Jon Ossoff. In addition to Ossoff losing his bid in the suburban Atlanta Congressional seat long held by Republicans, the painful defeat further highlights deep fissures in the party and perhaps the slow-burn destruction of the Democrat Party.

More so, despite the best efforts by Hollywood elites, glitter-bombing liberal suburban moms, and a massive infusion of out of district, and out of state donations, Ossoff’s youth and $36 million, could not wrench the Congressional seat from the Republican, a U.S. House seat which has firmly controlled the district for four decades. Karen Handel won the previous runoff by just over five percentage points in what is now the most expensive House contest in the nation’s history.

The Georgia House race was also considered a referendum on a number of hot-button issues, depending on where you sit politically. Handel’s hands-down victory is already being spun as a victory for Trumpism, a mark of approval for Obamacare repeal efforts, an increasing condemnation of Democrats campaign of hate and violence, and now a less than encouraging sign for the left’s midterm hopes, and an endorsement of the influence and power of Trump.

The single positive note for the Democrats is that Ossoff performed significantly better in the district than Hillary Clinton did in the 2016 presidential election, but that’s it, and at this point no one cares. In the end it doesn’t bode well for Congressional races in 2018. On the other hand, the 30-year-old political upstart couldn’t translate a tide of healthcare frustration and anti-Trump sentiment into victory. Perhaps that’s because he didn’t promote single-payer, or because Bernie Sanders criticized his politics, or because Georgians hate the influence of out-of-state money.

While those are significant, in the closing weeks, I believe the hate, violent and assassination campaign of the Democrats is having an effect — because Kathy Griffin decapitated the president, the Democrats believe the assassination attempt on Congressman Steve Scalice had it coming to him, and the fact that the political-left’s and Democrat Party failure to condemn the Shakespeare in the Park in the park assassination of President Trump is angering more and more Americans including Democrats, as a number of voters noted.

Ossoff’s so-called centrism label appears to also have alienated many of the radical-left progressives. Further, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders eventually endorsed him, but only after publicly questioning whether he was a true progressive, it fell short. Exit poll comments from voters suggested that some on the left never understood or liked a Democrat who stressed his fiscal Conservatism. In the end, Ossoff lost the seat by more than the margin of in error Tuesday’s Congressional race.

In the end, the basic schism in the Democrat party—is the negative new course it has charted and the totally insane direction the party has chosen — that of hate, violence, and brutality, and now the new trend, of the constant calling for the assassination and death of Republican. The drastic impact of this horrific trend is even more apparent now that Democrats have lost every special Congressional election since President Donald Trump took office. In addition to the Georgia race, the party failed to pick up seats vacated by Republican House members who joined the Trump cabinet in Kansas, Montana and South Carolina, although they ran far ahead of their usual numbers.

Going into 2018, there are a number of vulnerable seats, more than enough to make up for the 23 the Dems need to take back the House. But for now, Republicans in Congress are increasingly confident they can survive and thrive—in the Trump era.

Colonel Jim Waurishuk, USAF (Ret.)

Jim Waurishuk is a retired USAF Colonel, serving nearly 30-years as a career senior intelligence and political-military affairs officer and special mission intelligence officer with expertise in strategic intelligence, international strategic studies and policy, and asymmetric warfare. He served combat and combat-support tours in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as on numerous special operations and special mission intelligence contingencies in Central America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He served as a special mission intelligence officer assigned to multiple Joint Special Operations units, and with the CIA’s Asymmetric Warfare Task Force, as well as in international and foreign advisory positions. He served as Deputy Director for Intelligence for U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) during the peak years of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Global War on Terrorism. He is a former White House National Security Council staffer and a former Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. He served as a senior advisor to the Commander U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is Vice President of the Special Ops-OPSEC -- which provides strategic and operational security analysis and assessments to governmental and private entities, as well as media organizations on national security issues, policy, and processes. He currently provides advisory and consulting services on national security, international strategic policy, and strategy assessments for the U.S. and foreign private sector and governments entities, media groups and outlets, and to political groups, forums, and political candidates. He is an author and writer providing regular commentary and opinion to national and local TV, radio networks, and for both print and online publications, as well as speaking engagements to business, political, civic and private groups on national security matters – focusing on international strategic policy and engagement, and strategic intelligence, and subject matter expertise on special mission intelligence and operations, counter-terrorism, and asymmetric warfare and conflict.

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