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Georgia Democrat Picks Up Progressive Endorsement

End Citizens United backs Jon Ossoff in special election

Democrat Jon Ossoff is one of 18 candidates vying for Georgia’s 6th District seat. (Courtesy Jon Ossoff for Congress Facebook page)
Democrat Jon Ossoff is one of 18 candidates vying for Georgia’s 6th District seat. (Courtesy Jon Ossoff for Congress Facebook page)

End Citizens United, a liberal political action committee, is throwing its weight behind Democrat Jon Ossoff in the race to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Georgia’s 6th District. 

The endorsement is the latest sign that Democrats want to make a play for the district, which President Donald Trump carried by less than 2 points last fall, and that Ossoff is their top candidate. 

The former Hill staffer and Atlanta native has already banked half a million dollars in support through the liberal website Daily Kos. Georgia Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson, Ossoff’s former boss, have both endorsed him.

“We need an anti-corruption reformer like Jon Ossoff in Congress to lead the fight against President Trump and his allies, who are doubling down on a rigged system,” Tiffany Muller, executive director of End Citizens United, said in statement. 

The group’s goal is to overturn the controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision that deregulated corporate and union spending for or against specific candidates. It endorses Democratic candidates committed to a campaign finance overhaul, and spent $15 million on House and Senate races in 2016.

The PAC will connect Ossoff’s campaign with local volunteers — it has 40,000 members in the Atlanta area — and activate its national donors, ensuring “he has the resources to win,” according to a statement from the organization.  

[Georgia Candidates Are Not Afraid of Donald Trump]

Ossoff is one of five Democrats running in the special election, which has attracted a field of 18, including a handful of ardent Trump supporters. All candidates will run together in an April 18 jungle primary, with the top-two vote-getters, regardless of party, advancing to a June 20 runoff. 

Democrats will need to coalesce around a single candidate if one of their own has a chance of making the top two. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee included the 6th District on its initial list of 59 targeted seats, but it’s still an uphill climb for the party. The Atlanta suburbs may not have been friendly to Trump, but Price won re-election by 23 points last fall.  

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