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SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. Democrats are closer than they ever could have imagined to winning a House seat in the Republican suburbs of Atlanta, and dealing a resounding blow to Donald Trump.

But theyre also gripped by anxiety about what happens if they fall short Tuesday.

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A loss in Georgias special election here could leave the party demoralized, with little to show for all the furious organizing, fundraising and spending in a handful of congressional special elections in the early months of the Trump administration. As a result, Democrats are now straining to throw everything they have at Georgias Sixth Congressional District to push Jon Ossoff over the top against Republican Karen Handel, aiming to prove they can win the suburban districts that may pave the way to a House majority in 2018.

"Just like any sporting event, however unlikely it is that you're close heading into the fourth quarter, a loss is bitterly disappointing and there will be some feeling of, 'when do we get this done if it's not this race?'" said longtime party strategist Dan Kanninen. "You'll definitely see some hand-wringing from Democrats wondering when we're going to get over that hump."

In public, the party insists that the mere act of keeping the contest close in a district the GOP routinely wins by over 20 points is a victory in itself. But behind closed doors, operatives and lawmakers expect a withering round of internal second-guessing if they come up short after pumping enough money into the pro-Ossoff effort to make it the most expensive congressional race ever.

And beyond recriminations, theyre worried the fundraising and organizing fire fueling the party in the Trump era could wane after so many resources were poured into Georgia especially with no other big-ticket races looming to re-energize the base until the off-year gubernatorial elections in November.

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"There's a lot of anticipation that Democrats could do better than Hillary [Clinton] did, but it remains to be seen if Democrats can turn these so-called red districts into something purple," warned former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile.

With just hours left in the race to replace now-HHS Secretary Tom Price, Democrats' internal polls mirror the public ones, suggesting Ossoff holds a slight lead over Handel, though the gap between them remains within the margins of error in the surveys.

According to Democrats close to the contest, the high early voting turnout has rendered Tuesdays result less predictable than expected. And that unpredictability has party leaders stung by criticism from liberal activists for not spending enough money on earlier special elections this year in Kansas and Montana urging activists not to be disappointed by a tight race that ends in defeat.

Their concern is that anything less than victory could dampen the partys torrid energy and cash flow, with the next round of House races still nearly a year-and-a-half away.

From the start, the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] understood that winning the Georgia 6th special election would be a monumental task. Simply put, virtually every structural advantage benefits Republicans in a special election in this traditionally conservative district, wrote DCCC Executive Director Dan Sena in an expectation-setting memo circulated to a group that included donors and friendly groups last Tuesday.

He reminded them that the committee has spent more than $6 million to fundamentally transform a traditionally Republican electorate, turn out low-propensity voters, channel the unprecedented grassroots energy, and communicate with swing voters.

But the Tuesday vote comes after the race basked for months in the national spotlight, during which Ossoff raised over $23 million and every DCCC briefing to progressive groups and donors included an update on the committee's activities in the race.

Party consultants have already been invited to a Sena-led briefing on Wednesday after the election, part of an effort by top Democratic operatives to try and calm nerves about the implications for 2018 of a potential Ossoff loss. Theyve already pointed to previous examples of special elections failing to serve as midterm bellwethers, and circulated analyses like one from the Cook Political Report noting that 71 GOP-held districts are expected to be even more competitive than Georgias Sixth, when Democrats only need to win 24.

I remember in 2011, Kathy Hochul won a special election in an historically Republican district in Buffalo and everyone prophesied that the Democrats were on track to recapture the House majority, said former DCCC Chairman Steve Israel. Winning or losing a special election doesnt get to the overriding challenge Democrats have, which is a map that the Republicans have rigged, and redistricting.

Still, no House race in recent memory has been as closely scrutinized as the one in Georgia, both because of the unprecedented spending and Trumps shadow. With Democrats hoping to use the president's weak approval ratings as fuel to power them back to a House majority, the affluent suburban district has become a testing ground for both parties, a recognition that is resembles the kind of electorate that could end up swinging control of the House in 2018.

Democratic leaders in Washington believe a win would not only re-invigorate their own grassroots, but would likely lead to a round of Republican soul-searching and finger-pointing. Against that backdrop, they expect a handful of top recruits to step into the fray against vulnerable GOP House members.

Victory is always much easier to embrace than defeat, so Jons victory on the 20th will make a lot of longer-shot races more viable, said Stacey Abrams, the Democratic Georgia House minority leader who is now running for governor another long-shot race itself. But if hes not successful, its a question of margin, and the most important conversation is going to be to look at the landscape and focus on how Jon Ossoff, a political neophyte, made this very competitive.

Campaign signs are piled in a vehicle as Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff visits a campaign office on April 17 in Marietta, Georgia. | Getty

Democrats have found that an anti-Trump message only carries them so far. Ossoff initially gained attention as a potential warrior against the administration, but now rarely talks about the White House. Instead, hes pushing a message about reforming Washington. While GOP polling shows that Trumps approval rating has dropped within the district, Ossoff has had to expand his focus to try and win over moderates and some Republicans the day after the DCCC finished conducting local focus groups that revealed moderates' complicated views of Trump, Ossoffs campaign stopped going after the president in its paid ads.

Trumps political operation has, in fact, given Ossoff more trouble than Democrats anticipated: when the pro-Trump America First Policies group first jumped into the race with advertising, it was viewed as a turning point by DCCC operatives, who saw the move as evidence that an entirely new piece of the GOP infrastructure was swooping in to save the seat for Handel. The DCCC then injected more money into the race than initially planned and intensified its direct mail get-out-the-vote program.

With the race turning away from its early framing as a referendum on Trump, Democratic operatives have instead looked closely at Ossoffs campaign for clues about messaging that other Democrats might emulate next year. Thats been a sensitive exercise: Democratic establishment strategists fret that the partys liberal insurgent wing will take an Ossoff loss as evidence that candidates need a clearer, Bernie Sanders-like message of economic populism, while progressive leaders worry an Ossoff win could encourage the party to recruit more moderates.

The races potential to exacerbate internal divisions is one reason the DCCC has sought to remind its allies over and over about the district's conservative leanings. But it has also been bringing in consultants from all over the party to talk to its staff about how to communicate with various constituencies that will be central to its 2018 efforts among them Sanders strategists including operatives from the Devine Mulvey Longabaugh firm that handled his media and campaign manager Jeff Weaver, who have been through the building to talk about millennial targeting and economic messaging.

For now, in the closing stretch of the race, the party is ratcheting up the level of engagement. They're directing busloads of volunteers from all over the country and scores of campaign pros from Washington in the final days to help turn out voters. House and gubernatorial candidates have joined state Democratic parties from as far away as Oregon in asking for volunteers to join the phone banking program for the special election. This month, the DCCC even urged sitting members of Congress to throw cash at Ossoff, leading to a deluge of donations from his potential colleagues for the last week of the race to the tune of over $55,000, according to federal filings.

This is a laboratory. In order to win the House back we have to win in districts that are gerrymandered for Republicans, so [special elections like this one are] laboratories for us to figure out whats the best way to mobilize this vote, said Democratic National Committee Associate Chair Jaime Harrison, conceding that a loss in Georgia would expose the reality that the party has not yet reached the point of being fully prepared to take back the House.

Its why you have preseason before you start the NBA regular season, he added. We still need to work out all the kinks and figure out the best way forward. I do know we cant continue to do some of the same things weve been doing.

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Democrats sweat the details in Georgia special election - Politico

Dan Henrickson rapped on the door of a stucco townhouse perched on a cul-de-sac in the north Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita and awaited his fate.

The 63-year-old information technology consultant from Los Angeles was volunteering for the Democratic Partys local club and still getting used to the awkward art of door-knocking earlier in the afternoon, he choked on a sip of water just as a voter opened his door.

The man who answered this time looked Henrickson and his door-knocking partner up and down as they started their spiel. He asked them a single question: Are you Democrats?

The man shut the door when he got the answer.

California may offer Democrats a lopsided advantage as a whole, but this patch of the state where the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles comes to an end and the Mojave Desert begins is still a bastion for the Republican Party and the political territory of second-term GOP Rep. Steve Knight.

Knight won reelection by 6% last fall, but because Hillary Clinton was able to beat Donald Trump by about the same margin in his district, Democrats consider the seat as having prime pickup potential. The stakes: control of the House in 2018.

That is where Henrickson and about 90 other liberal activists come into the story, more than a year out from the election.

Christina House / For The Times

Democratic volunteers Pamela Sparrow, right, and Derek Bryson, both from Los Angeles, knock on doors in a Simi Valley neighborhood. The area has been traditionally Republican, but Democrats see an opportunity to make inroads.

Democratic volunteers Pamela Sparrow, right, and Derek Bryson, both from Los Angeles, knock on doors in a Simi Valley neighborhood. The area has been traditionally Republican, but Democrats see an opportunity to make inroads. (Christina House / For The Times)

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Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from the Westside of Los Angeles, has been paying for buses and vans to ferry volunteers over the Sepulveda Pass into Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley to reinforce local Democrats as they start up voter registration drives. Organizers say they have registered 80 voters over three trips so far.

The volunteers are in no short supply. Many are political neophytes newly invigorated by opposition to President Trump and itching for something to do.

In L.A., you kind of feel like you are in this helpless political bubble, Zoe Ward, a 32-year-old student in UCLAs film directing masters program, said after scouring Palmdale for new voters on a recent Saturday. Coming out here, it feels like my minutes and hours go further.

Two weekend trips into the district earlier this spring show the task is grueling but uplifting work for some Democrats feeling guilty that they did not do enough in 2016 to help their party.

Henrickson came away with nothing to show for his time in Santa Clarita.

I am not a big fan of it, but you got to do something, he said. The next time this is going to be easier.

Organizers said they arent expecting much at first. Part of the program is simply letting locals know there are other Democrats around.

Simi Valley is, after all, home to the Reagan Presidential Library. Knights father, William J. Pete Knight, represented the Antelope Valley in Sacramento for 12 years and was the author of a successful 2000 ballot initiative banning gay marriage in the state. It might be easy for Democrats to feel they are lone liberals given how the district is steeped in conservative Southern California history.

We want to let them know they are not alone, said Christy Smith, a candidate for state Assembly in Santa Clarita who has taken part in the efforts. For a long time they have felt like they need to stay inside their house with the curtains drawn and the doors closed.

Mariah Craven, one of the organizers who also helped Kamala Harris win her Senate seat last fall, said Democrats have to start somewhere.

This entire thing is very experimental, she said. There is no model for doing it this early.

As the party looks to other districts like Knights particularly in Orange County that elected a Republican member of Congress and favored Clinton for president, they see bright spots for Democrats. They say they are ready to replicate the registration and outreach effort elsewhere.

If Democrats want to flip the district, first they have to build up their numbers: 37.6% of voters here are Democrats, 34.8% are Republicans and 22% decline to state a party.

In Knight territory, some volunteers are naturals, even professionals, at the art of building up the base.

Derek Bryson, a 56-year-old film editor from Culver City, sat on a park bench in Simi Valley clad in military-style hiking boots. He slurped down a protein shake. It was going to be in the high 80s that day.

His companion, Pamela Sparrow of Los Angeles, examined a granola bar and tossed it back on the table.

Too salty, she said. That will dehydrate you.

Both worked as paid field organizers for Clinton in Las Vegas, leaving California last year for a swing state that Democrats needed to keep to win.

Joining them were Laura Simon and her 14-year-old daughter Sofia, from Los Angeles. Simon said she stayed out of politics in 2016, and regrets it.

I come for her future, Simon said. We are not going to make that same mistake again.

Bryson and Sparrow jumped out of their car on a tree-lined street in Simi Valley. Nearby a shirtless man washed a raised 4x4 pickup truck.

Every vote counts, Bryson said to himself as they walked down the street.

Kris Rodriguez answered the first door they knocked on. The 25-year-old landscaper, clad in a T-shirt and sandals, squinted through his screen door and told them hed never voted before.

I really dont care, to be honest with you, he said. I dont know what party I am or what the difference is.

Bryson switched to small talk about football, and after a moment Rodriguez took a look at the registration papers. A family member came over to help him. Bryson took a step back. After a moment Rodriguez returned the forms. He had registered as a Democrat.

Around the block, Bryson and Sparrow caught Erick Guillen on his way out the door The 25-year-old lab technician was bashful when he admitted he skipped last Novembers election. Politics makes him uneasy.

I didnt feel like my voice would be heard or make a change, he said. But he re-registered to vote by mail, saying he said didnt like the way Trumps tenure has started. I am gonna vote now.

The two were on a roll.

Pamela Sparrow, left, and Derek Bryson, right, visit Kris Rodriguez, 25. "I really dont care, to be honest with you, Rodriguez said. I dont know what party I am or what the difference is. He finally registered -- as a Democrat.

Pamela Sparrow, left, and Derek Bryson, right, visit Kris Rodriguez, 25. "I really dont care, to be honest with you, Rodriguez said. I dont know what party I am or what the difference is. He finally registered -- as a Democrat.

Tracy Stevens, 52, seemed puzzled when he saw the duo on his doorstep. I thought you were gonna bust out the Bible, he said.

Hed never had political canvassers come knocking and he took the opportunity to express his frustrations with the political system and how it just doesnt seem to matter what people do to try to change things.

I didnt vote for this guy, but you have to support him, he said. A lot of people give up on the system.

Sparrow waited in silence as he spoke. Then she invited him to attend the next meeting of area Democrats.

We participate in the process when we dont participate, she said.

They wrapped up their tasks and met back up at the park to see how it went for the others in the group.

Lisa Newman, a 55-year-old karate instructor from Simi Valley, suggested the outsiders get familiar with hyper-local issues to have better success with their efforts. Two out-of-towners in her group had been asked about vacant business space at the local mall during their rounds. When they were clueless how to answer, Newman had to intervene.

Meg Sullivan also struggled. The 58-year-old retired publicist from the tony Cheviot Hills neighborhood near the 20th Century Fox Studios said most of the doors she knocked on didnt even open.

Were we able to make a difference? she asked. I dont know.

Sullivan said she hadnt as much as lifted a finger since 1972, when her mother took her to knock on doors for U.S. Sen. George McGovern when he ran against President Nixon.

Trumps election changed her passivity. Never again, she said, shaking her head.

I do this for my mental health, she said. Just to have a sense that Im doing something to combat this terrible tsunami thats taking over.

javier.panzar@latimes.com

Twitter: @jpanzar

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These Democrats feel guilty for sitting out the 2016 elections, and they aren't waiting to register voters for the ... - Los Angeles Times

Democrats are seeking to capitalize on President Donald Trump calling the Republican health care bill "mean" ahead of the Senate's vote to repeal Obamacare, seeing it as a pivotal moment in an issue that could drive the 2018 midterm elections.

The comments from Trump, made privately to senators last week, were largely overshadowed by a mass shooting at a Congressional baseball practice and new developments in the special counsel's investigation into Trump and his associates.

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But a senior Democratic aide said the party plans to revive the "mean" comment part of floor speeches, press conferences and social media, and consultants said they craved the image of Trump celebrating in the Rose Garden with House members over a "mean" bill that hurt poor Americans.

"We will be weaving mean into the broader attack in a prominent way," the aide said.

Democrats see the health care fight as more potent than an investigation into potential collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice -- and a possibly defining gaffe for commercials, according to aides. Hitting Republicans in the House for a bill that "even Trump said was mean" is particularly satisfying for Democrats, considering the president celebrated its passage in the Rose Garden.

In the Atlanta Journal Constitution poll of Georgia's Sixth Congressional District runoff, the health law polled lower than House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Trump, Republican candidate Karen Handel, Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff.

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But Democrats have struggled to come up with a united message on health care and have faced criticism because insurance companies have raised premiums and pulled out of health care exchanges in some states.

Whether Trump's "mean" comment becomes a potent line of attack against the president -- like the Democrats hope -- or unifies moderate Senate Republicans to pass a health care bill that squeaks to a 50-vote margin remains unclear.

I think its unifying, added Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). At the end of the day, its helpful for us in getting the support that we need for the vote."

Should the Senate pass a vastly different bill, which is then adopted by the House, the scathing internal attack could be blunted.

Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said the party was already planning to make the bill more generous.

Trump's tendency to make impolitic remarks also leaves such a gaffe as harder to exploit. One person who has spoken with Trump says he has also criticized the Senate health care process and some of their wishes.

This person said Trump had been stung by the non-stop negative news coverage of the House bill, particularly reports that more than 20 million people or more could lose insurance.

"In the list of things he's said, I don't think this one is high up there on the list," one administration official said.

A second administration official said the White House knows the health care push to 50 votes is a difficult one, and the White House has heard more complaints from moderates than conservatives in the Senate. Trump, this person said, was trying to show the path he saw to getting a better bill passed.

But it certainly left some Republicans in the House upset, particularly conservatives who were cajoled and cursed at by Trump, then feted by the president in a Rose Garden party, complete with a jazz band, when the bill passed.

The Heritage Foundation, for example, wrote an op-ed decrying the Trump attack as "not mean," defending the bill as good small-government policy.

"You can almost see the ads being written already," one GOP aide said.

In the Senate, where Republicans are still struggling to craft legislation that can pick up 50 GOP votes, Trumps "mean" comments left the sense that the president wants a health care measure that is easier to defend. Several GOP senators said Trumps comments can only help in putting together a bill that is more politically palatable and substantively improved from the measure that passed the House in May.

For instance, Trumps comments insisting the Senate bill not be viewed as an attack on low-income Americans would seem to shore up arguments from centrist Republicans who want Obamacares Medicaid expansion phased out more gradually a major contention point in the conference that has yet to be settled.

But typical for a president not steeped in policy, Trumps private remarks calling for a more generous health care bill or legislation that is not so mean, according to some accounts left it wide open for Republicans to interpret them in myriad ways.

Im not sure what that means, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said of the presidents remarks. Im a very generous person. I help people who dont have insurance. I want everybody to have health care. I think no physician should turn down treatment of people based on that.

Nonetheless, Republicans are at real risk of missing their Fourth of July recess deadline to vote on their Obamacare replacement, with factions of their conference still deeply divided over when to end the Medicaid expansion and how best to lower health insurance premiums.

We keep talking about the same stuff over and over and over and over and over again, complained Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) At some point, were going to have to have votes. And right now -- the reason why we keep talking about the same stuff over and over again -- we dont have the votes.

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Democrats use Trump 'mean' comment to tar GOP - Politico

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. After Missouri Democrats were routed in rural areas last year, the partys leaders promised to be more aggressive in fielding candidates for the legislative districts ceded to Republicans.

Accomplishing that goal may require them to promote and fund House and Senate aspirants with socially conservative views on abortion a strategy that makes some uneasy in a party that largely supports abortion rights. The talk also comes as the legislature holds a special session to strengthen abortion restrictions in Missouri.

This complicated dynamic was on display last week during a meeting of the Pike County Democratic Club, where officials from the statewide party took suggestions from the audience about building a platform. When the subject turned to abortion, Eolia resident Andy Young brought up the hostility candidates who are generally opposed to abortion rights face. Young pointed to how Omaha, Nebraska, mayoral candidate Heath Mello, who voted for some abortion restrictions while he was in the Nebraska legislature, lost his race after being excoriated by abortion rights activists.

I would like the national party and the state party not to come into places like this where we have not necessarily liberal views in all cases, Young said. Im very liberal. But these people are not necessarily all that liberal. And they have a right to be heard as Democrats as well. It shouldnt just be people who think like me.

Democrats dominated in northeast and southeast Missouri for decades, even though they tended to vote for abortion restrictions. Thats why some are thinking now that candidates who oppose abortion rights might have a better chance at beating Republicans at the ballot box.

The union that I worked at, we talked politics and I was the officer in the union, Herb Sisco, a retired union member who lives in Pike County. Basically, we were pretty much 100 percent Democrats. All of them were. Thats why its very hard for me to understand, other than a gun issue or an abortion issue, those single issues will prompt a Democrat to vote Republican. I dont know why. I wouldnt. But they do.

Internal debate over abortion rights has been going on for decades, Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Webber said. There have been a number of prominent Democrats over the years who opposed abortion rights, including former U.S. Sen. Tom Eagleton and former Gov. Joe Teasdale.

Its not a new fight, Webber said. Were the party of health care, of public education, of public schools, working families. We need to do a better job connecting on these issues in rural communities. And the candidates were going to be looking for are folks that are willing to work hard and communicate that with conviction.

Jalen Anderson, a committeeman from Jackson County who is leading the Missouri Democratic Partys effort to create a platform, said candidates should stand by their convictions on issues such as abortion rights.

But, he added: Democrats always love to focus on that one specific issue of abortion, but we never talk about the rest of womens health. The abortion issue is something that we have to focus on, because we are the party that believes in what the Supreme Court decided with Roe v. Wade and we believe that it should be protected. Because we cant go back to the archaic ways of hiding in shame.

A mixed record

In the past decade, Democrats who oppose abortion rights have a mixed record when it comes to winning legislative seats.

In 2006, former Sen. Frank Barnitz of Lake Spring, Rep. Paul Quinn of Monroe City and Rep. Tom Shivley of Shelbyville were able to keep rural districts in the Democratic column in 2006. But all three of those candidates were voted out of office by 2012, and there hasnt been much of an effort to win those seats back.

Meanwhile, a number of socially conservative Democrats, like former state Reps. Terry Swinger of Caruthersville, and Joseph Fallert of Ste. Genevieve failed at winning rural Senate districts over the past few election cycles. The last two Democratic candidates that captured GOP Senate seats, Scott Sifton of Affton and Jill Schupp of Creve Coeur, are fairly vocal proponents of abortion rights.

Socially conservative candidates arent the solution to the partys woes, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri Executive Director Alison Dreith said, because Republicans are out and proud on their issues and not wavering depending on the constituency that theyre talking to and trying to paint a picture of somebody who they are not.

She praised the Democrats for the goal of running someone for every seat in the 2018 elections, but noted that the Democrats now have some rebuilding to do when it comes to trust. I wouldnt necessarily trust a party that was coming and knocking on my door or asking for money for the first time in a really long time.

Its worth noting that the last three Democratic governors, Mel Carnahan, Bob Holden and Jay Nixon, all hail from rural areas of the state. All supported abortion rights, with Carnahan and Nixon seeing exceptional support for two terms in rural counties.

On the Trail, a weekly column, weaves together some of the intriguing threads from the world of Missouri politics.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

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On the Trail: Democrats mull whether anti-abortion rights candidates would regain political ground - KCUR

A right-wing radio host dismissed the prayers Democrats offered after last weeks shooting during a Republican baseball practicein Alexandria, Virginia.

Why would you want to pray with the children of Satan? Jesse Lee Peterson said in comments posted online by Right Wing Watch. They serve a different God than you. Thats reality.

Last weeks attack left six people injured, including two lawmakers. One of those wounded, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), remains hospitalized after multiple surgeries and was upgraded from critical to serious condition over the weekend.

The violence led to numerous displays of unity among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including shared prayers.But Peterson said Republicans shouldnt join them.

What are the Democrats praying for? The Democrats are not of God, Peterson said. All of a sudden when Scalise gets shot, when they hear about the shooting, all the children of Satan are going to come together and pray? Please!

In the past, Peterson,who is black, has said he would like to take all black people back to the South and put them on the plantation so they would understand the ethic of working. He also said that giving women the right to vote was one of the greatest mistakes America made. His self-titled radio show has featured interviews with other divisive right-wing figures, including Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke and Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Over the years, Peterson has also been a guest on Sean Hannitys show on Fox News as well as Hannitys radio program, where he once claimed that there was no such thing as racism. Hannity, it should be noted, disputed that.

Listen to Petersons latest comments, as posted online by Right Wing Watch, here:

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Democrats Are 'Children Of Satan,' Right-Wing Radio Host Says - HuffPost