Frustrated national Democrats are pinning their hopes and dreams of damaging President Trump on "unlikely hero" Jon Ossoff and his longshot bid to win the special election Tuesday night in Georgia's sixth congressional district.
The 30-year-old Ossoff is a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide. He has been flooded with millions of dollars in outside money as Democrats hope to score an upset win and wound Trump.
The front page of Ossoff's campaign site reminds visitors, "We don’t have to wait until 2018–or 2020–to fight back against Donald Trump. Jon Ossoff's special election is the FIRST competitive Congressional race of the Trump era."
Even Hollywood celebrities are getting in on the action: Alyssa Milano offered to drive voters to the polls during early voting, and Samuel L. Jackson stars in a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad encouraging Georgia's sixth district to vote.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Ossoff has a "depth of knowledge" on policy, former congressman Harold Ford Jr. said he spoke with "competence," the Daily Kos praised him for his presentation and appeal to the party, and one CNN reporter called him "formidable."
However, Ossoff doesn't live in the metro Atlanta district he hopes to represent and therefore can't vote for himself. He misrepresented his national security credentials for months, was caught "making shit up" about Nate Silver in a fundraising email, and, despite the extensive Democratic support, Ossoff is uncomfortable about being called a progressive, telling MSNBC's Chris Matthews he's actually "pragmatic."
The good news for Ossoff is he leads the crowded, 18-candidate field to replace former congressman Tom Price. The bad news is unless he gets over 50 percent on Tuesday night, he'll go to a run-off in June against one of the many Republicans behind him, which could potentially be former secretary of state for Georgia, Karen Handel.