If you've heard any coverage of the gigantic amount of money Democratic upstart Jon Ossoff has raised for his bid to capture Health and Human Services Sec. Tom Price's former House seat in Georgia, you've probably heard reporters dismiss his eye-popping $8.3 million haul as mostly coming from "outside the district." It's a way of minimizing his staggering fundraising as part of a proxy war waged by external groups battling for turf. Republicans, meanwhile, are desperate to smear Ossoff’s appeal:
“He’s a far-left Washington insider whose campaign is propped up by Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and the like,” said Maddie Anderson, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
But upon a closer look, the average donation for Ossoff was only about $42.50 per donor. That's not the type of number that suggests high-dollar progressive donors are dominating Ossoff's giving. Instead, it's a reflection of grassroots energy nationwide (much of it driven by Daily Kos readers) matching the sense of urgency that exists among Democrats within GA-06. And make no mistake: that's a lethal combination heading into 2018.
Reports from both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have rightly emphasized the grassroots enthusiasm of progressive voters in the 6th Congressional District, which is transforming the way Ossoff's race is run.
The WSJ gets the outside-to-inside balance about right with its focus on voter Rachel Paule:
The 23-year-old Georgian attended the women’s march in Washington after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. She became a local captain for Sister District, a new online group that directs donors to legislative races around the country. She contributed $15 to a Delaware state senate candidate running in a special election more than 700 miles away.
That Delaware Senate candidate, by the way? Democrat Stephanie Hansen, whom Daily Kos also endorsed—and who won her race, keeping the state Senate blue. Back to Paule:
Now she is spending 40 hours a week on a special election in her own backyard, campaigning for Democrat Jon Ossoff in his bid for an open House seat in the suburbs north of Atlanta—the seat once held by Newt Gingrich and recently vacated by Tom Price, the Republican picked to be President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Ms. Paule is one of the new foot soldiers of the Democratic Party—a surging wave of activists who are pouring money and energy into anti-Trump causes wherever they can find them.
Money and energy are the key. Both matter.
In terms of money, Ossoff's fundraising has eclipsed that of all his GOP challengers combined, with his two closest fundraising competitors being Republicans Judson Hill at $473,029 and Karen Handel at $463,744.
Handel claims some 831 donors, which would put her average donation at about $558 per donor, or more than 13 times that of Ossoff's average donation. He has also amassed a total of 195,684 donors. They’re the kind of numbers that have Republicans on edge these days.
“$8.3 million can make a squirrel competitive,” said Karen Handel, the former Georgia secretary of state and Senate candidate who is just one of 11 Republicans running in an all-party primary with Ossoff.
Maybe it could, but it’s safe to say that squirrel couldn't generate as much enthusiasm as Ossoff has. That's why Handel (along with every other Republican) is slinging arrows at him. Whether or not he manages to win this solidly red district, the urgency surrounding his campaign is a sign of things to come.