Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is a 30-year-old former congressional staffer running in his first election who won an initial round of voting in April, but fell just short of the threshold needed to win the seat outright.
Karen Handel, the former Georgia Secretary of State and Republican senatorial candidate, won by just under five points. While that tends to be a typical part of the GOP playbook, some of the advertisements from Handel-supporting SuperPACs were especially provocative, like one spot that tried to link Ossoff to Kathy Griffin shortly after she did a photo shoot in which she held up a bloody effigy of Trump's head.
The costliest USA congressional race in history will be decided on Tuesday in suburban Atlanta, where America's divisive political climate has been on display in an election seen by some analysts as a political test for President Donald Trump.
Yet the result in a historically conservative district still offers Republicans a warning that Trump, for better or worse, will dominate the looming campaign cycle.
Democrats see an opportunity to win a race in a Republican district now, Lake said. Republicans are favored to hold a fourth seat on Tuesday in SC, while Democrats already held their lone open seat in a California special election.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) congratulated Handel on "a hard-earned and well-deserved victory". Swings like these may be enough to produce a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives at next year's election, but they do not yet signal the sort of catastrophic collapse that might impel the GOP to take action against its rogue president. Party leaders profess encouragement from the trends, but the latest losses mean they will have to rally donors and volunteers after a tough stretch of special elections.
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His combative briefings became must watch TV and were parodied on NBC's " Saturday Night Live ", with Melissa McCarthy portraying him.
The election will not significantly change the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. Trump's legislative agenda would have been shelved indefinitely, as each member of the Republican caucus would have focused on saving his or her own seat, the president be damned if necessary. That argument will lose credibility if a Democrat wins in a traditionally Republican district despite what looks as though it will be high turnout.
Should Handel win, Trump may well claim some credit for getting her across the finish line. She barely mentioned him ahead of finishing second to Ossoff in an April primary.
The DCCC alone spent $5 million backing Ossoff's House bid.
Handel, 55, embraces her experience as a statewide and local elected official, often telling voters: "You know me".
All eyes are on Georgia on Tuesday and the special election that has turned out to be the most expensive House race in American history. Ossoff was raised here, but now lives a few miles away so his fiance can be closer to the medical school she attends.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, which spent close to $7 million on the race, was especially scathing in linking Ossoff to Hollywood. She touts traditional supply side economics, going so far as to say during one debate that she does "not support a living wage" - her way of explaining her opposition to a minimum-wage increase.
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