After nearly half a year of intense politicking, two rounds of voting, and a flood of wildly overwrought analysis, the special election in Georgia's 6th congressional district is finally over. Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff, 52 percent to 48 percent, in the race to replace former Rep. Tom Price, who vacated the seat to become President Trump's health and human services secretary.

The Georgia race had transformed into a referendum on Trump due to the president's soft support in what is typically a reliable Republican district. Price won re-election in 2016 by 23 points, but Trump carried the district by just a single percentage point. Democrats spied an opportunity in all that ticket splitting to pick up the seat, and the party quickly consolidated behind Ossoff after he announced his candidacy in January.

More money was dumped into this special election than any other House race in history, nearly doubling the total spent on the previous title holder. Ossoff scraped together record-setting fundraising totals from small donors and got outside help from online activist groups. Handel, meanwhile, relied heavily on super PAC spending, especially from the Paul Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund.

It's tough to divine many broader lessons from a race that was so thoroughly drowned in hype and money, but there are a few points to be drawn out from the results.

https://theweek.com/articles/706469/democrats-deflating-georgia-defeat