QUICK CLIP: New Poll Shows Jon Ossoff Leading Senator Perdue, Latest of Many “Flashing Warning Signs” in “Tightening” Senate Race

As a new internal poll shows Jon Ossoff leading vulnerable incumbent David Perdue, the Democratic challenger joined MSNBC’s Chris Jansing to talk about the increasingly competitive Georgia Senate race that has already forced outside Republican groups aligned with Mitch McConnell to spend more than $24 million – confirming Senator Perdue’s own warning earlier this year that “Georgia is in play.” The interview comes on the same day as a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the “series of developments” pointing to a “tightening Ossoff-Perdue race.”

The Georgia Senate race is one of many that Washington Republicans are struggling to defend in the face of strong challengers. Ossoff outraised Perdue by $1.2 million in the second quarter – one of 13 Democratic challengers to raise more in the last fundraising quarter than Republican candidates in GOP-held seats. Independent analysts at Inside Elections recently moved the race in Democrats’ favor.

As Ossoff said in his interview, self-serving politicians like Perdue have “failed us, they have no record to run on, and don’t deserve to be reelected.” 

WATCH: 

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Senate: Signs point to a tightening Ossoff-Perdue race
By Greg Bluestein
July 22, 2020

Key Points:

• U.S. Sen. David Perdue has long warned he was in for a tough re-election fight in November. A series of developments on Wednesday offer a pointed reminder just how tight the race is shaping up to be.

• The day started with word that a group connected with Majority Forward, a super PAC boosting Senate Democratic candidates, will pour $5.2 million into TV ads in Georgia in August to boost Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign against Perdue.

• The Republican incumbent, meanwhile, released his third TV ad of the cycle – and the second to take aim at Ossoff, who won his party’s crowded primary outright in June.

• Perdue’s allies in the National Republican Senatorial Committee aren’t taking Ossoff lightly either. The group released a second ad Wednesday…

• And Ossoff went on MSNBC hours later to trumpet a poll conducted for his campaign by Garin-Hart-Young Research that shows him deadlocked with Perdue. The poll pegs Ossoff at 45% and Perdue at 44% — within the margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

• “Because Ossoff currently has a name ID deficit with the incumbent, his lead is larger among Georgia voters who know both candidates,” reads the polling memo, “an encouraging sign Ossoff will increase his profile.”

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