colleague. updating you on breaking news out of georgia s 6th congressional district where votes are still being counted. 30-year-old democrat jon ossoff raised $8 million in his bid to flip his congressional seat from red to blue. there are 18 people running in this election, 11 republicans, five democrats and two independents. the question tonight is whether ossoff or other candidates can clear 50%. if so that person wins the seat. if not there will be a run off election june 20 for the top two finishers. right now with 84% jon ossoff at the 48%. republican karen handelwith 19%. behind her are trump supporting business executive bob gray and former georgia state senator
behind a single candidate a prediction looks like he s more like a 50/50 coin flip. so a lot is on the line tomorrow. the question is, can democrats win in georgia and what would it mean going forward in the dozens of districts that should be easier to flip from red to blue than georgia s 6th? how can they win an election? tom perez, chair of the democratic national committee he kicked off a tour with independent senator bernie sanders. thanks for joining me. great to be with you from portland, maine. absolutely. you are on a tour with bernie sanders which begs a couple of questions. the first one is the fact he s out on the road with you, does that portend a shift into formally into the democratic for senator sanders? have you talked to him about that? we re united.
democratic national dmeechlt he kicked off a tour with independent senator bernie sanders. thanks for joining me. great to be with you from portland, maine. absolutely. you are on a tour wh bernie sanders which begs a couple of questions. the first one is the fact he s out on the road with you, does that portend a shift into formally into the democratic for senator sanders? have you talked to him about that? we re united. you look everywhere we go, you see the unit in action where it was oppositing the affordable care act repeal, you see action out in the field. about a month ago there was a special election in delaware that had been a jump ball. this time we won it by 16 points. you saw kansas where we should have lost by 30, we lost by 7. we ve got the opportunity down in congressional 6th that you just talk about in georgia. that s been in republican hands for 37 years including newt
not the independents and moderate voters have swung en masse to democrats. the problem is the democratic second base so energize that voters who rarely pay attention to politics are suddenly engaged. one gop operative said the gop realized there may be a problem when polling found that even low propensity democratic voters were interested in the race. democrats will look to make gains in two special elections in the coming months, in south carolina and montana. the the biggest one is tomorrow in georgia s 6th congressional district. ossoff is hoping to get a seat previously held by tom price, and before that, newt gingrich. this in a district that has not been represented by a democrat in 37 years. thanks to huge support and national interest, ossoff appears likely to finish in one of the top two spots to take the runoff. whether he can secure enough votes for a majority and win the seat outright is in question. if he fails to win tomorrow and with republicans likely uniting
and get 50%? well, i tell you, one thing i learned, joy, from 2016 is that the folks who think they the pundits who know everything and can predict everything have been proven to need a little bit of help. here s what i do know. we haven t controlled that seat in 37 years. and the republicans in georgia gerrymandered the heck out of it. what i do know is that wave tremendous amount of energy in not just among democrats, but among independents and republicans. i noticed donald trump sent a ro bo call out. he said if you elect john ossoff to the congress, it will result in the destruction of health care. i found that to be rather humorous and ironic to say the least.