April 5, 2017

Here’s How Badly Republicans Are Freaking Out About That Georgia Special Election

Oof.


A new poll has Democrat Jon Ossoff at 43 percent—seven points below the threshold to win outright and avoid a runoff—in the special election for the House seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The district, which was once represented by Newt Gingrich, has been solidly Republican for decades but was nearly carried by Hillary Clinton in November (Price faced only token opposition). Ossoff, for his part, has raised $4 million thanks to a newly mobilized Democratic base. It is the kind of affluent suburban district that Democrats will need to win to take back the House in 2018, and although Republicans have publicly expressed confidence in their candidates, their actions betray their fears about a Democratic resurgence.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super-PAC affiliated with the House Republican leaders, announced last month that it was spending an extra $2.2 million against Ossoff. That was on top of an earlier $1.1 million investment attacking the Democrat for—seriously—dressing up as Han Solo in college. Their latest spot, apparently ripped from the front pages of the New York Post circa 2002, slams Ossoff for producing a documentary for the Qatari-own Al Jazeera:

Did Jon Ossoff do 9/11? It’s an open question.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate