What Democrats’ Defeat in Georgia Means—and Doesn’t

Four recent special elections in Republican-held House districts, including Tuesday’s showdown in the northern Atlanta suburbs, have left both parties facing the same ambiguous equation they confronted as 2017 began.

Significantly improved Democratic performance in all four contests has provided evidence that enough voters are uneasy about Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency to give Democrats a competitive chance of recapturing the House of Representatives next year. But the GOP wins despite those Democratic gains have shown that enough ordinarily Republican-leaning voters are sticking with their party to give it a plausible chance of holding its majority. CONT.

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic