Democrats have put all they can into winning the hotly contested race for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, but Republican candidate Karen Handel fits the district better than Democratic contender Jon Ossoff, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday.
"The Democrats threw the entire kitchen sink at this thing," Ryan told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Bill Hemmer.
"They spent tens of millions of dollars picking up this seat."
Despite the millions of dollars that's been spent, Ryan said he'd "rather be us, the Republicans, than the Democrats going into this race," as Handel is a better fit for the seat left vacant when Rep. Tom Price resigned to become House and Human Services secretary.
"[Ossoff] is a liberal Democrat who does not reflect this district," Ryan said. However, Republicans do need to get the vote out, as the race is tight.
He does not think the 6th Congressional District is a "one-issue" location, and said it's one that President Donald Trump won by just a few points.
"I think everybody will try to read into it one thing or the other," he said of talk that the vote is a referendum on Trump. "Karen Handel clearly fits this district. She is from the district. The Democrat isn't from the district. I think that's really what it comes down to and I think people will try to take something out of it."
However, Ryan said he did not want to get into what it could mean for Republicans if Handel loses to Ossoff.
"We have not lost one of the special elections yet," he said. "I don't want to get ahead of where we are. I feel good about where we are. I would rather be the Republicans than the Democrats in this race. Let's not speculate about the outcome until we have one."
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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