With all of the votes counted in Cobb and DeKalb counties and partial returns from Fulton County, Ossoff hovered right at the majority threshold required to win an 18-candidate primary outright.
Trump was heavily invested in the race, which became a referendum on his presidency, and in a tweet claimed victory, although Ossoff could still win in the runoff, and came out of nowhere to almost win the seat in a heavily Republican district.
National Republicans say any of the top GOP candidates could defeat Ossoff in a second round.
In Tuesday's results, Democrats saw more evidence of a playing field for the 2018 midterm elections that has drastically expanded - and given the party's 10 senators up for re-election in states that Trump won some breathing room.
An Ossoff win would not tip the balance of power in Washington but could weaken the already shaky hold Trump has on his fellow Republicans by encouraging lawmakers to distance themselves from him.
Ossoff won 48.1 percent of the vote Tuesday and now faces a runoff against his nearest rival, Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state who won 19.8 percent of the vote.
Ossoff is running in a special election there to replace congressman Tom Price, who resigned to become Trump's health secretary. But the matchup in greater Atlanta's northern suburbs is just as much about Ossoff and Handel acting as proxies for the nation's roiled political atmosphere.
Republicans say they could beat Ossoff in a one-on-one contest.
"This is already a remarkable victory".
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That is nowhere near good enough - and McCollum and Lillard are likely not going to both play at that high of a level again. If anyone knows what it's like to shoot white-hot in an National Basketball Association game, it's Klay Thompson.
For Republicans, Ossoff's strong performance acts as another wake-up call alongside the closer-than-expected win in a House special election last week in archconservative Kansas.
But their investment was meager compared to the money spent by Republicans and their allies, who poured millions into the race in TV and digital ads.
Whatever the outcome, the race highlights Republican candidate's challenge in dealing with the president: He still engenders intense loyalty among his core supporters, but alienates many independents and some Republicans.
"I certainly support the president and will work with him where we agree", Handel told The Associated Press at one of her final campaign stops before polls opened. Gingrich represented the 6th from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. Republican Karen Handel was in a distant second, but comfortably ahead of her Republican competitors. "Glad to be of help!" he wrote late on Tuesday.
"If Jon Ossoff comes in first place in the ruby-red district of Georgia's sixth ... it will make clear that this is the first domino to fall", said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Even though this is an area that Trump carried by less than 2 points in November - after Mitt Romney won it handily in 2012 - Price won re-election easily each year.
Ossoff would be a "disaster" in Congress, Trump declared earlier Tuesday on social media, a day after he blasted Ossoff as a "super liberal". He just "hopes to have a Republican elected", Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
"This is not a story about me". The California Democrat remains an unpopular figure in the district. "Despite a heavy advertising advantage and a national stream of unlimited resources, Jon Ossoff's Hollywood-focused campaign finished no better than Hillary Clinton's", Congressional Leadership Fund Executive Director Corry Bliss said in a statement.
In several tweets on Tuesday, he said Ossoff was "very weak on crime and illegal immigration, bad for jobs and wants higher taxes" and urged Republicans to vote to force a run-off.
Handel spends most of her efforts touting her record in public office, but makes a point to join in the Pelosi bashing. Georgia GOP officials have maintained the party will come together, and Handel struck a note of unity when addressing her supporters Tuesday night.
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