Republicans are starting to rally behind one Jon Ossoff opponent in Georgia's special election

The president is urging people to get out and vote, but notably hasn't endorsed any candidate

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published April 18, 2017 12:20PM (EDT)

 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

While President Donald Trump has only taken to Twitter to rant about the Democratic frontrunner in Georgia's runoff election to replace Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, Republican voters in general seem to be coalescing around a single alternative — former Johns Creek Councilman Bob Gray.

A new poll by zpolitics and Clout Research found that Gray has support among 17 percent of voters, compared to 15 percent for former Secretary of State Karen Handel, according to a report by zpolitics. They are followed by former State Senator Judson Hill with 10 percent, former State Senator Dan Moody with 9 percent, businessman David Abroms with 3 percent, and former Trump Diversity Coalition leader Bruce Level with 1 percent.

In order for any one candidate to win the election today, that individual must receive 50 percent or more of the total votes cast. If that doesn't happen, then the top two candidates — one of whom is likely to be Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff — will compete in a runoff election in June.

Not surprisingly, President Trump has been actively tweeting his thoughts about the upcoming election since the weekend.

While Trump was less than honest about Ossoff's policy stances, he is correct about the Democrat's chances of winning in a June runoff election. As Clout pollster Fritz Wenzel told zpolitics, "The problem for Ossoff is that he has been unable to attract that half of the independent voters in the district skew Republican. That, combined with the reality that Democrat voters in the district are substantially outnumbered by Republicans, very likely seals his fate. Ossoff is likely to easily win the primary, but is just as likely to lose the runoff to whichever Republican comes in second place."


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Bob Gray Donald Trump Georgia Special Election Jon Ossoff