Just correcting this wack-ass image that uses DCCC funding for Group A and total contributions (including small donations) for Ossoff; that uses presidential results instead of House results because it self-cherrypicks the data-points for the narrative they want
This is exactly what I was dreading from an Ossoff loss. It wasn't the idea of missing out on an extra seat in Congress or having a battle-hardened incumbent for 2018, it was that people on the left would all pile on about how everyone else is wrong and the party is a giant failure, while cherry-picking statistics to butress their argument. That's not even factoring in the idea that these districts have special elections right now precisely because Trump's admin. thought they were safe (and most of them were, on paper) when they snatched the Representatives out of them.
The fact that we even came this close in districts like KS-4, SC-5 and GA-6 should be cause of celebration on its own, except that months of building up excitement and expectations shifted the goalposts so far that now it is somehow a failure and a disappointment and somehow vindicates that suburbs are TOTALLY lost for Democrats and we should take the establishment folks and string them up!
I mean my god folks.
In the end, Ossoff received the exact same % of the vote he got in round 1 - 48.1%. All that money to get the same exact % of the vote. What a complete waste. Democrats should have never tried in this seat.
And right as I clicked post, this comes in and provides a clear example of what I was saying. Should have never tried? Are you kidding? This race was and had been effectively a toss-up, and circumstances provided for a small Handel win. That's what happens in toss-ups. Each side has a good chance, and in the end one wins for various reasons. It's not like Ossoff never had a chance ffs.
Again, somehow a small loss in a previously-safe Republican district was a waste and big mistake? How does that even make sense?
Democrats are bad at building a sustained organization and movement right now. How may times did the Goldwater people lose before they started winning?
The Democrats right now, today, have it 100x far easier than Barry Goldwater and his crew ever did.
You have partisans who are convinced that they are going to win until they get tired of winning because the poll numbers are favorable to them at this time. Things are more complicated than that, though, and results occur "against expectations". I am greatly pleased to see Handel walk away with the win, but this seat should never have been close to begin with.
