As voters headed to the polls in Georgia's hotly contested 6th Congressional District race on Tuesday, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff insisted that it does not matter to voters that he does not live inside the district he hopes to win.
"Voters just aren't asking me this question," Ossoff told MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle. "Voters are asking me what I'm going to do to improve our local economy. Frankly, if this is the best argument my opponents have against me, I'm feeling pretty good about the outcome tonight."
Ossoff has come under fire from Republicans all the way up to President Donald Trump for living a short distance outside of the district while his fiancé is in medical school. His Republican opponent, Karen Handel, slammed him during a Fox News interview Tuesday morning.
She said she feels positive about her chances against Ossoff, and said Republicans are motivated" as "they do not want someone who lives outside of the district coming in and representing them, and they surely don't want [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi coming in to buy this seat."
Ruhle, meanwhile, did not let him back out of the residency question easily.
"Jon, since the special election where you were at 48.1 [percent of the vote] things have only moved to 48.8 with 50 million bucks under your belt. Voters care a lot. If you look back on this and things are that tight, wouldn't you say to yourself just get an apartment in the district?"
Ossoff repeated that voters did not care that much.
"Well if voters were raising that as a serious concern, Steph, maybe I would," he said. "It's just not a major issue in the race."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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