Of those districts, the Georgia 6th "was, by no means, the closest district and the most viable district for Democrats to win", Lever said.
Republican candidate Karen Handel and husband, Steve Handel (left), prepare to vote. Jon Ossoff, by contrast, has never run in an election before.
Pamphlets sit outside the campaign office of Jon Ossoff, Democratic candidate for Georgia's 6th congressional district in Chamblee, Ga., Monday, June 19, 2017.
The Georgia special election result could be consequential for the fate of the GOP's Obamacare replacement bill, the American Health Care Act.
Last month, Republican Greg Gianforte won a special congressional election in Montana, despite being charged with assaulting a United Kingdom reporter.
After months of campaigning, Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel are facing off to fill the seat vacated by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Georgia's Sixth Congressional District.
Incomplete returns show Ms Handel winning nearly 53% of the vote over Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia's 6th Congressional District.
The margin allows Republicans a sigh of relief after what is being recognised as the most expensive House of Representatives race in USA history, with a price tag that may exceed 50 million dollars (£40 million). Georgia's outcome follows similar results in Montana, Kansas and SC, where Republicans won special House races by much narrower margins than they managed as recently as November.
Republicans also narrowly held on to the SC U.S. House seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, now Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Sabato said the lesson to learn from the race for Democrats should be the "euphoria they felt" over Trump's struggles in the polls have been replaced by reality.
Lions selection: 'We've got a real challenge'
But just before Marler returned to the field, former Bath fly-half Donald put the Chiefs on the board with a penalty of his own. After an hour, the Chiefs were spent, and the Lions were able to have a little running fun with a couple of lovely tries .
Republican Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, enlisted numerous state's top elected officials to keep Georgia's Sixth District in Republican hands. "God, no. But I believe he has the country's best interests at heart", said Jessica Podalsky, who voted for Handel this morning.
Donald Trump has praised on Republican Karen Handel after she won a special election runoff in Georgia, while celebrating other recent GOP wins. Mitt Romney carried the district by more than 23 points when he faced former President Barack Obama in 2012.
"As soon as she concludes her medical training, I will be back into the district where I grew up, but I want to support her and her career and do right by her", he said. Like most of the south, the district was solidly Democrat for more than a century, but finally fell to the Republicans in 2010.
For Ossoff supporter David Ware, the decision was clear-cut based on his belief that health care should be affordable.
Karen Handel is telling supporters that the first results in Georgia's closely watched congressional race are "incredibly encouraging".
Handel herself claimed victory around 10:40 pm. She barely mentioned him ahead of finishing second to Mr Ossoff in an April primary, but welcomed him for a private fundraiser in late April.
Handel, 55, embraces her experience as a statewide and local elected official.
I'm ready to stick a fork in it - and please note that this is my personal projection - Handel defeats Ossoff, Republicans breathe big sigh of relief. It just hasn't flowed through her campaign, which has raised $5 million thanks in part to three fundraisers headlined by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The young Democrat received 8.9 times as many many donors from California than from any other state in the union, including all of the totals from Georgia itself. But Republicans made the issue central to their campaign.
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