Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is in a dead heat with his Republican opponent in the special election runoff for a vacant Georgia House seat, according to a poll by a Democratic polling firm.
The poll by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research shows Ossoff at 48 percent and Republican Karen Handel at 47 percent, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ossoff’s campaign manager, Keenan Pontoni, touted the poll as a positive development for the campaign six weeks before the runoff election.
“Four months ago, nobody expected us to even break 40 percent,” Pontoni said.
{mosads}“Now, after our historic first-place finish on April 18th and this encouraging poll, we’re seeing the results of our community’s massive outreach efforts, and with our plans to ramp up those efforts even more, our campaign is well-positioned to win on June 20th.”
Ossoff leads Handel by 12 points among those who voted in last month’s special election and in the 2016 elections, but not in the 2014 midterms, the poll found.
The survey was conducted April 23–26 and polled 590 people likely to vote in next month’s runoff. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Ossoff came in first place in last month’s jungle primary, which pitted 18 candidates against one another regardless of party, but just missed topping the 50 percent threshold to win outright and avoid a runoff.
Ossoff and Handel are vying for the seat vacated by Tom Price, who departed Congress to serve as President Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services.