ATLANTA – Jon Ossoff is holding a huge lead in Georgia’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary heading into Election Day next week, according to a poll conducted for WSB-TV by Landmark Communications.
Ossoff, an investigative journalist, was the choice of 41.9% of 400 likely Democratic voters surveyed earlier this week. Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson was running a distant second at 14.0%, followed by businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico – the Democrats’ 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor – with 8.9%.
The other four candidates in this race polled only 7.2% combined, while 28.0% of the likely voters surveyed were undecided. The poll’s margin of error was 4.4%.
Ossoff, who lost a special election for a U.S. House seat to Republican Karen Handel three years ago, is the leading fund-raiser among the candidates looking challenge incumbent Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in November. The Democrat from Atlanta has undoubtedly benefited from the name recognition he received during the 2017 contest, the most expensive House race in history.
Ossoff would have to capture more than 50% of the vote next week to win the Democratic primary outright. If none of the candidates gets a majority of the vote, the nomination would be decided in a runoff Aug. 9.
Perdue is running unopposed in the June 9 Republican Senate primary.