ALPHARETTA, Ga. (AP) – President Donald Trump on Monday attacked his political enemies seeking an upset in Georgia’s special congressional election, blasting the leading Democratic candidate as a “super liberal” who “wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!”
Trump did not expound on his unfounded accusations about 30-year-old Jon Ossoff, but the president’s Twitter broadside just a day before the special primary underscores how big a Democratic victory would be nationwide and in the historically conservative northern suburbs of Atlanta.
Ossoff, who has used anti-Trump sentiments nationally to collect at least $8.3 million in campaign contributions, countered Monday that Trump is “misinformed,” but added that he’s “glad the president is interested in the race.”
Republicans and Democrats alike see the closely watched contest as an important barometer of Trump’s standing ahead of 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats will try to regain control of Congress.
The Georgia district, represented previously by Trump’s new health secretary, Tom Price, encompasses reliably Republican territory across parts of three metro Atlanta counties. But Trump underperformed here in November, barely edging Democrat Hillary Clinton and falling short of a majority. In 2012, by contrast, Republican nominee Mitt Romney garnered more than 60 percent of the vote.