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The deal with President Donald Trump "would be to put Gorsuch and Merrick Garland on the court at the same time, Sen. Tom Udall said. | Getty

By Seung Min Kim

02/27/17 01:18 PM EST

Updated 02/27/17 02:31 PM EST

Sen. Tom Udall met with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on Monday, but the senators mind was still on Merrick Garland.

So the New Mexico Democrat pitched an unusual proposal during his private meeting with President Donald Trumps nominee: Have both Gorsuch and Garland whose nomination by Barack Obama was blockaded by Senate Republicans for nearly a year simultaneously confirmed to the Supreme Court.

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You had President Trump saying, I want to unite the country, Im a deal-maker, Im going to bring people together, Udall told reporters following his meeting with Gorsuch on Monday. Well, the deal right now for President Trump, if he wanted to do it, would be to put Gorsuch and Merrick Garland on the court at the same time.

This is how Udall described it: Trump would discuss the option with one of the three Supreme Court justices often mentioned as retirement prospects in the coming years Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer or Anthony Kennedy and secure a resignation letter from one of them, contingent on Garland getting nominated and confirmed as their replacement.

Then the two nominees would have a simultaneous confirmation process and votes, Udall said.

Udalls pitch which he said he has mentioned to other senators looks like a pipe dream at best. Trump galvanized the right during his presidential campaign by creating a list of 21 conservative justices who could be potential high court picks. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump was already eyeing future Supreme Court replacements in case Kennedy retires, including Sixth Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge and D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Kethledge was on Trumps list of 21 potential justices, while Kavanaugh is a George W. Bush appointee.

White House officials who accompanied Gorsuch into his meeting with Udall declined to say anything in response to Udalls suggestion, the senator said.

The senator noted that presidents in the past have coaxed Supreme Court justices to step down from their lifetime appointments, including Arthur Goldberg, who was asked by President Lyndon B. Johnson to resign from the court so he could become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Udalls proposal also mirrors an episode from the fifth season of The West Wing, when staffers for fictional President Jed Bartlet faced with a high court vacancy following the death of an associate justice persuade the shows chief justice to also resign so Bartlet could announce a pair of nominees who wouldnt change the ideological balance of the court. A Udall spokeswoman said the Democrat had the idea when a constituent asked him "quite earnestly" why both Gorsuch and Garland couldn't be confirmed to the Supreme Court. She said Udall wasn't an avid watcher of the NBC show.

Still, Udall declined to say whether the unusual arrangement would persuade him to vote in favor of Gorsuch.

Im going to do the same thing Im going to do with this nomination and whatever nomination comes before us, Udall said. Youd still have the same review of the other nominations. The key to the whole thing you wouldnt want one side to back out of it.

He added: Its an idea. Its just an idea, I threw it out to them, I throw it out to you.

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Democrat: Let's confirm Gorsuch and Garland at same time ...

His administration under fire over Russian contacts, President Trump shot back at Democrats on Friday byposting an oldphoto of Senate Minority Leader Charles E.Schumer (D-N.Y.) having a doughnut and coffee with Russian President Vladimir Putin, labeling the senator a "total hypocrite"and somewhat jokingly calling for an investigation.

Above the smiling photo-op, Trump wrote: "We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!"

Trump, who rarely passes up an opportunity to punch back when under attack, was responding to Democrats' calls for an investigation into Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions' failure to tell Congress under oath about two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Sessions agreed torecusehimself Thursday from any investigation related to Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

The president had "zero" interaction with Russian officials about his campaign and his presidency, aWhite House spokeswoman told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"The president himself knows what his involvement was, and that's zero, and I think he is the you know primary person that he's be held responsible and he had no interaction," Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah H. Sanders said.

When asked whether the president is concerned that there are more contacts between his circle and Russian officials that he doesn't know about, Sanders said,"I don't think so."

Trump's taunting tweet was part of a running tit-for-tat exchange between the White House and the Senate minority leaderon social media.

Schumerhad written on Twitter on Thursday that Congress should expand its investigation into Russia's intelligence effort to tip the 2016 election in Trump's favor.

"The bottom line is we have an obligation to get to the truth. We must evaluate the scope of Russia's interference in our election," Schumer tweeted.

In response, White House communications official DanScavinoposting the photograph of Schumer and Putin smiling together, writing:"Do it over a donut and coffee."

Schumer, however, had a quick comeback for Trump's latest missive.

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Trump fires back at Democrat over Russia ties, calls Schumer a 'total hypocrite' - Los Angeles Times

Senator Kamala Harris of California (seen here speaking at the Jan. 21 Womens March on Washington) was one of several rising stars whom the Democrats overlooked in choosing former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear to deliver a response to President Donal Trumps address to Congress on Tuesday night.

If anyone still wondered whether there was an established institution in this country strong enough to save us from Donald Trump and his authoritarian impulses, the media hot takes and Democratic response to Trumps speech last night should put those questions to rest. And just so were clear, the answer is no, no one is going to save us.

Last night, Donald Trump delivered a speech full of lies (the Affordable Care Act is collapsing, the US is on the verge of becoming a sanctuary for extremists, the environment in border states is lawless chaos) and he received near unanimous praise from TV media pundits. Describing the moment when Trump recognized the widow of Navy SEAL William Ryan Owens, CNNs Van Jones said, He became president of the United States in that moment, period.

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Jones added, That was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics.

If the moment was extraordinary, that was because just 24 hours before delivering his speech to Congress, Trump told attendees of the annual meeting of the National Governors Association that the military doesnt fight to win anymore. And on Tuesday morning, during a Fox & Friends interview, Trump blamed Owenss death on the military. Referring to the generals who planned the raid in Yemen, Trump said, This was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something they wanted to do. . . . And they lost Ryan.

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Considering those comments, then yes, Trumps recognition of Owenss widow was extraordinary. But how anyone can opine on Trumps remarks absent this context is mind-boggling.

A measured, disciplined speech by the president appeared to do little to dissipate the partisan tension.

Much more mind-boggling, though, was the Democratic Partys official response to Trumps speech. Staged in a diner and delivered by former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, the nine-minute rebuttal was an unmitigated disaster. Introducing himself to the audience, Beshear said: I am a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, I am a proud Republican, and Democrat and mostly, American. (He was supposed to say, I am a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, Im a proud American.)

Where, one might ask, were three of the Democratic Partys rising charismatic politicians they could have called on? Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, or Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey?

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Even worse than the bizarre pick of a 72-year-old white guy from Kentucky, though, was the script that Democrats saddled him with. Despite the materials Democrats had to work with such as the GOPs insistence on repealing a health care law supported by 54 percent of Americans Beshears rebuttal was boring and forgettable. If this was the best that Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi could come up with, then no one should be looking to current Democratic Party bosses for leadership.

Trumps shocking electoral win has sparked a passionate, witty, and engaged opposition: More people turned out to protest Trumps inauguration than attended it. After Trumps disastrous executive order on immigration, hundreds of attorneys showed up at airports across the country to offer free legal help to those affected by the ban, and hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country hit the streets to show their support for immigrants and refugees. To say that this energy was missing from the Democratic response would be an understatement.

Last weekend, Democrat Stephanie Hansen won a special election for Delawares 10th District Senate seat. She defeated a Republican candidate who had come within two percentage points of victory in 2014. Hansen beat him by 16 points. It was the first swing election held since Nov. 9, and it is fair to say that the people spoke, and spoke loudly.

Its a lesson for going forward. The media arent going to save this country. The Democratic Party isnt going to save this country. We the people are going to save this country, by insisting on the truth; electing politicians who speak for all of us, not some of us; and refusing to pretend that anything about the Trump presidency is presidential.

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Democrats squandered an opportunity - The Boston Globe

The women themselves have said they were honoring the suffragettes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries while indicating their ongoing commitment to womens rights issues such as equal pay for equal work.

But not many conservatives believe the white wall of women was intended to be a merely symbolic gesture of solidarity with suffragettes.

Whatever each intended to convey by her choice of clothing, the entire bloc of women in white was virtue signaling. That is one reason they chose white clothing.

The choice of white garments has long signified the sacred. Being dressed in white indicates being set apart, dedicated to sacred ideals, spiritually separated from the crowd as seeking to attain righteousness and purity. Whether Vestal virgins or, in the Christian tradition, the scared rituals of baptism and first communion, white is the garment of choice. It indicates purity of life and deeds which the rest of the world should seek to attain.

In the case of many, if not all of the feminists who sat on their hands and refused to stand as a gesture of support for Carryn Owens, widow of Navy SEALRyan Owens, the garments indicated they are the chosen priestesses of the pious Left, the defenders of the feminist faith.

To look at the bloc of white garbed Democrat women was to look at oracles of Delphi who have mystically discerned the most sacred right of women is the right to sacrifice their own offspring. To look at the high priestesses dedicated to the religion of radical feminism is to see leaders of a cult, the chief sacrament of which is abortion.

For nearly all leftist feminists, abortion is a holy rite, a religious ritual to be conducted in the cathedrals of Planned Parenthood and to be blessed by faith leaders.

Yes, you read that correctly. Blessed.

High priests and priestesses inside and outside the Beltway have committed to blessing abortion both by law and by religious rituals.

According to a recent Huffington Post article entitled Religious Leaders Bless Planned Parenthood Health Center, an group of clergy representing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and secular leaders gathered inside Planned Parenthood Metro Washingtons new Carol Whitehill Moses health center on Tuesday to perform a blessing of the space.

The article goes on to citeDr. Laura Meyers, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, who told the Huffington Post that progressive voices of faith should speak up for women:

Having a group of interfaith clergy perform a ceremony focused on unity and wholeness therefore takes on special meaning to empower and celebrate rather than to stigmatize, control and dehumanize. Having such a ceremony take place at this moment in history is especially powerful for us as we seek to mobilize our communities of different faiths to come together to affirm and support the reproductive freedoms we cherish and have fought so hard to achieve.

In the midst of all Meyers Newspeak, the most significant term is reproductive freedom, which is actually the Lefts code word for abortion on demand throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. Abortion on demand is the freedom to be cherished and blessed.

According to HuffPo, Rev. Dr. Christine Y. Wiley, participant in the sacred blessing ceremony and co-pastor of Washington, D.C.s Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, stated her Christian faith inspired her to support abortion:

Many people do not understand that there are many kinds of Christians. Conservative Christians dominate the television and Radio media and influence people to think that this brand of Christianity is Christianity. Although they have great influence, this stance is far from representing the true tenets of the person of Jesus Christ. As a progressive Womanist Christian who is concerned about wholeness in the community, especially for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised, my task is to do what Jesus did, to meet people where they are with love and understanding, and bring healing and freedom to them.

For Reverend Wiley, Jesus, being filled with love and understanding, is all for abortion.

Is the reverend aware of the Jesus who said that if anyone harmed little ones, he or she should be cast into the sea with a millstone around his neck? Does she recall that Jesus said to his disciples, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Is she aware the Christian Church she claims to represent has been against abortion from its founding in the first century?

Is Wiley, who is black, aware that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, targets blacks? Has she looked at the facts: 78% of Planned Parenthoods clinics are in minority communities. Blacks make up 12% of the population, but account for 35% of the abortions in America.

But to the clergy of the Left, be they black or white, within or outside congress, neither statistics indicating black genocide nor the horrors of sex select abortion nor the death sentences passed on Down Syndrome babies will ever temper their support of abortion on demand. It is an inalienable right that transcends the actualities of the abattoir that is the church of Planned Parenthood, whose representatives have been filmed bargaining over the sale of baby body parts.

Most of the women in white belong to an essentially pagan death cult that elevates abortion to a sacred right and rite that is impervious to the claims of science and Christian morality.

That is why Nancy Pelosis claim that she is a Roman Catholic while she is a leader of the women in white is laughable. Her prime allegiance is to another faith altogether.

The allegiance to the ritual of child sacrifice is why the bloc of white robed women will fight the Trump administration tooth and nail when it comes to defunding the temples of Planned Parenthood. That is why they will wage war on any pro-life justice who might threaten to overturn Roe. v. Wade. That is why they will not do anything to defend the rights of little women in the womb. That is why they will continue to support the extermination of the handicapped within the womb.

Abortion is the sacrament that unites the Democrats women in white as surely as the sacraments of the Christian Church unite believers.

Christians are often dressed in white for sacred occasions: baptisms, confirmations, and weddings. Being dressed in white is a sign of new life, new beginnings, being born again, being redeemed.

That is why those who are believers are depicted in the book of Revelation as being given a white robe, the sign of the redeemed who have believed in the blood sacrifice of the God Man Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God whose innocent blood was given for all who believe. They are transported with joy.

What will this same Christ will say to those who unrepentantly and proudly wear robes soiled with the blood of innocents? What will he say to those who bless death?

Will he bless them, or will he say, Depart from me. I never knew you.

Fay Voshell holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her its prize for excellence in systematic theology. A frequent contributor to American Thinker, her thoughts also have appeared in many online magazines, including Fox News, CNS, National Review, RealClearReligion and Russia Insider. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com

There have been many interpretations concerning the mysterious bloc of women Democrats robed in white -- all the while pointedly ignoring President Trumps speech to the joint session of Congress.

Some critics compared the ladies to devotees of the Ku Klux Klan. Photoshopped images of them wearing the pointed hoods of the KKK almost immediately appeared, as some recalled the Democrat Partys commitment to the Klan, particularly in the 1920s.

The women themselves have said they were honoring the suffragettes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries while indicating their ongoing commitment to womens rights issues such as equal pay for equal work.

But not many conservatives believe the white wall of women was intended to be a merely symbolic gesture of solidarity with suffragettes.

Whatever each intended to convey by her choice of clothing, the entire bloc of women in white was virtue signaling. That is one reason they chose white clothing.

The choice of white garments has long signified the sacred. Being dressed in white indicates being set apart, dedicated to sacred ideals, spiritually separated from the crowd as seeking to attain righteousness and purity. Whether Vestal virgins or, in the Christian tradition, the scared rituals of baptism and first communion, white is the garment of choice. It indicates purity of life and deeds which the rest of the world should seek to attain.

In the case of many, if not all of the feminists who sat on their hands and refused to stand as a gesture of support for Carryn Owens, widow of Navy SEALRyan Owens, the garments indicated they are the chosen priestesses of the pious Left, the defenders of the feminist faith.

To look at the bloc of white garbed Democrat women was to look at oracles of Delphi who have mystically discerned the most sacred right of women is the right to sacrifice their own offspring. To look at the high priestesses dedicated to the religion of radical feminism is to see leaders of a cult, the chief sacrament of which is abortion.

For nearly all leftist feminists, abortion is a holy rite, a religious ritual to be conducted in the cathedrals of Planned Parenthood and to be blessed by faith leaders.

Yes, you read that correctly. Blessed.

High priests and priestesses inside and outside the Beltway have committed to blessing abortion both by law and by religious rituals.

According to a recent Huffington Post article entitled Religious Leaders Bless Planned Parenthood Health Center, an group of clergy representing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and secular leaders gathered inside Planned Parenthood Metro Washingtons new Carol Whitehill Moses health center on Tuesday to perform a blessing of the space.

The article goes on to citeDr. Laura Meyers, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, who told the Huffington Post that progressive voices of faith should speak up for women:

Having a group of interfaith clergy perform a ceremony focused on unity and wholeness therefore takes on special meaning to empower and celebrate rather than to stigmatize, control and dehumanize. Having such a ceremony take place at this moment in history is especially powerful for us as we seek to mobilize our communities of different faiths to come together to affirm and support the reproductive freedoms we cherish and have fought so hard to achieve.

In the midst of all Meyers Newspeak, the most significant term is reproductive freedom, which is actually the Lefts code word for abortion on demand throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. Abortion on demand is the freedom to be cherished and blessed.

According to HuffPo, Rev. Dr. Christine Y. Wiley, participant in the sacred blessing ceremony and co-pastor of Washington, D.C.s Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, stated her Christian faith inspired her to support abortion:

Many people do not understand that there are many kinds of Christians. Conservative Christians dominate the television and Radio media and influence people to think that this brand of Christianity is Christianity. Although they have great influence, this stance is far from representing the true tenets of the person of Jesus Christ. As a progressive Womanist Christian who is concerned about wholeness in the community, especially for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised, my task is to do what Jesus did, to meet people where they are with love and understanding, and bring healing and freedom to them.

For Reverend Wiley, Jesus, being filled with love and understanding, is all for abortion.

Is the reverend aware of the Jesus who said that if anyone harmed little ones, he or she should be cast into the sea with a millstone around his neck? Does she recall that Jesus said to his disciples, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Is she aware the Christian Church she claims to represent has been against abortion from its founding in the first century?

Is Wiley, who is black, aware that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, targets blacks? Has she looked at the facts: 78% of Planned Parenthoods clinics are in minority communities. Blacks make up 12% of the population, but account for 35% of the abortions in America.

But to the clergy of the Left, be they black or white, within or outside congress, neither statistics indicating black genocide nor the horrors of sex select abortion nor the death sentences passed on Down Syndrome babies will ever temper their support of abortion on demand. It is an inalienable right that transcends the actualities of the abattoir that is the church of Planned Parenthood, whose representatives have been filmed bargaining over the sale of baby body parts.

Most of the women in white belong to an essentially pagan death cult that elevates abortion to a sacred right and rite that is impervious to the claims of science and Christian morality.

That is why Nancy Pelosis claim that she is a Roman Catholic while she is a leader of the women in white is laughable. Her prime allegiance is to another faith altogether.

The allegiance to the ritual of child sacrifice is why the bloc of white robed women will fight the Trump administration tooth and nail when it comes to defunding the temples of Planned Parenthood. That is why they will wage war on any pro-life justice who might threaten to overturn Roe. v. Wade. That is why they will not do anything to defend the rights of little women in the womb. That is why they will continue to support the extermination of the handicapped within the womb.

Abortion is the sacrament that unites the Democrats women in white as surely as the sacraments of the Christian Church unite believers.

Christians are often dressed in white for sacred occasions: baptisms, confirmations, and weddings. Being dressed in white is a sign of new life, new beginnings, being born again, being redeemed.

That is why those who are believers are depicted in the book of Revelation as being given a white robe, the sign of the redeemed who have believed in the blood sacrifice of the God Man Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God whose innocent blood was given for all who believe. They are transported with joy.

What will this same Christ will say to those who unrepentantly and proudly wear robes soiled with the blood of innocents? What will he say to those who bless death?

Will he bless them, or will he say, Depart from me. I never knew you.

Fay Voshell holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her its prize for excellence in systematic theology. A frequent contributor to American Thinker, her thoughts also have appeared in many online magazines, including Fox News, CNS, National Review, RealClearReligion and Russia Insider. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com

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The Democrat High Priestesses in White - American Thinker

Were Ossoff to win, it would be the first time a Georgia congressional seat has flipped in a special election since 1872. CreditPHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JON OSSOFF FOR CONGRESS

Last Saturday, Jon Ossoff, a tall, skinny, thirty-year-old candidate for the U.S. Congress with Kennedy-ish features and a deliberate, Obama-like manner of speaking, was scheduled to knock on doors in Roswell, a city in Georgias Sixth Congressional District. Over the past three decades, the district has been represented by Newt Gingrich, current Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson, and Tom Price, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. Prices appointment to the Cabinet left the seat empty, and a special election to fill it will be held on April 18th. The Sixth encompasses many of Atlantas wealthy and mostly white northern suburbs, and has long been considered a Republican lock; in 2012, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by twenty-four points in the district. But in the most recent election Donald Trump edged Hillary Clinton by just a single point here. Ossoff thinks he can turn the sixth blue, and claim the first congressional win against Trump on the G.O.P.sown turf.

Jere Wood, the longtime Republican mayor of Roswell, disagrees. This isnt a youth vote up here, he told me at his office, when I asked him about the makeup of the Sixth. This is a mature voter base. If someone is going down the list, theyre gonna vote for somebody who is familiar. He paused. If you just say Ossoff, some folks are gonna think, Is he Muslim? Is he Lebanese? Is he Indian? Its an ethnic-sounding name, even though he may be a white guy, from Scotland or wherever.

Ossoff is indeed a white guy, though he is not from Scotland. His father is a Jew of Russian-Lithuanian descent who owns a specialist publishing company, and his mother is an Australian immigrant and management consultant who co-founded a nonprofit aimed at electing womenof either partyto political office in Georgia. Our name was probably truncated at Ellis Island, Ossoff told me. From something like Ossoffsky.

His parents still live in the Sixth. Ossoff resides ten minutes south, where his longtime girlfriend can walk to class at Emory Universitys medical school. Growing up, Ossoff attended a small Atlanta private school called Paideia, where his college counsellor, John Stubbs, remembers him as a tenacious defender on the Ultimate Frisbee field and the founder of a politics blog called the Great Speckled Pi (a reference to an underground Atlanta paper published in the sixties and seventies). I was sort of an amateur essayist, Ossoff told me. Politically inspired by the second Iraq war, which he opposed. He readThe Economist, my God, in high school! Paul Bianchi, Paideias headmaster, told me. Ossoff was also unafraid to challenge his elders. Bianchi recalls cancelling school due to snow one year. And I got a short e-mail from Jon, about five minutes later. All it said was Wuss.

In high school, Ossoff interned with the congressman and civil-rights icon John Lewis, whose memoir, Walking With the Wind, deepened his interest in politics and social justice. Ossoff considers Lewis his mentor, and it was Lewis, he said, who told me that if any Democrat can win the Sixth, you can. Lewiss subsequent endorsement helpedas did online support from celebritiessuch as Debra MessingandGeorge Takei.Ossoff has raised nearly two million dollars sincedeclaring his candidacy,in early January. Roughly half of that sum has come fromthe efforts of liberal Web site the Daily Kos, which explains its support of Ossoff this way: Flipping this seat from red to blue would sendshockwaves through Congressand replacing Trumps anti-Obamacare point man with a Democrat would be an amazing little cherry on top.

Earlier this week, a G.O.P. super PAC made an ad buy of more than a million dollars for ananti-Ossoff spotthat features footage of Ossoff pretending to be Han Solo, from Star Wars, while attending Georgetowns School of Foreign Service. Just another college kid dressing up with his drinking buddies, a disappointed-sounding narrator says, reminding wary voters of Ossoffs youth. That Im being attacked means this race is winnable, Ossoff told me. They know they might lose this seat. Ossoffs other college activities included working for the Democratic congressman Hank Johnson, who represents Georgias Fourth District. Ossoff eventually became Johnsons deputy communications chief, campaign manager, and military legislative assistant. Then, after receiving a masters degree from the London School of Economics, he joined a firm specializing in anti-corruption investigations around the world. Hes now the C.E.O. ofInsight TWI, which produces documentaries about global issues. But he spends most of this time, these days, on the campaign.

There are currentlyeighteen candidatesin the race. All of themRepublicans, Democrats, and Independentswill appear on a single ballot; if no one clears fifty per cent of the vote, the top two finishers will compete in a runoff on June 20th. Eleven of the candidates are Republicans, including Georgias well-known former Republican secretary of state, Karen Handel, and former state senators Dan Moody and Judson Hill. Wood, the Roswell mayor, is confident that a Republican will win, though he has no idea which one. And, he added, When the mayor is clueless, most folks are clueless.Wood has allowed four different Republican candidates to put signs in the grass near his office.

The conservative commentator Erick Erickson, who lives in Macon, Georgia, has been watching the race closely. The candidates who are probably going to do the best are the ones who run on an accountability platform, he told me. The ones who say I was with Trump probably arent going to do as well. Erickson doesnt think the Democrats have much of a chance. I know theyve poured a lot of money in and may be able to get Jon into a runoff, but this is a very Republican district, he said. I think Democrats have misread the Trump election. This district went for Rubio, sizably, in the primary, he noted, suggesting that its constituents favor establishment Republicans, like many of those in the current race. And since its such a short race, and its all about name recognition, I think Karen Handel probably has the advantage over everyone else. The Kennesaw State University political scientist Kerwin Swint recently told the AtlantaJournal and Constitutionthat the numbers just arent there yet for the Democrats.

Were Ossoff to win, it would be the first time a Georgia congressional seat has flipped in a special election since 1872. DuBose Porter, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, cant endorse Ossoff by name with other Democrats still in the race, but his language strongly suggests that he favors the thirty-year-old. We have a number of candidates, but I think it will take a young, energetic visionary candidate to succeed, he told me. This is a national race, he added. There will be resources coming from all over the country.

Ossoffs campaign says that some six thousand volunteers have pledged their support for him so far. Two hundred or so showed up in Roswell to canvas on Saturday. There was a lawyer draped in an American flag; a seventeen-year-old girl who had been involved in the Clinton campaign; a twelve-year-old boy who said Ossoff seems cool; and three of Ossoffs friends from Paideia, who will be filming his campaign over the next two months. They talked among themselves about immigrant rights, L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and their antipathy for Donald Trump, a feeling that Ossoff sharesbut has muffled, as he wages a respectful campaign dedicated to local issues before national politics, as he put it.

Small groups gathered around Ossoffs thirty-year-old campaign manager, Keenan Pontoni, and I heard someone whisper, He reminds me of David Axelrod! Pontoni went over door-knocking protocol: Things to know about Jon that I hope you can bring up at the doors, and are mentioned on the script: First, that he was a national-security expert and aide with top-secret clearance, fighting to stop corruption and cut waste. He did that several times as a congressional aide. Second, that hes a business owner, whos had to balance budgets and make payroll. Third, and probably most importantly, he has, throughout the world, exposed corruption and saved lives against ISIS; he has exposed sex trafficking; he has done amazing things through his investigative career. Right now, more than ever, we need somebody who knows how to fight corruption in Washington.

A volunteer raised his hand and spoke. Hey, Keenan, Im sorry, can you say his name for us again?

Jon Oss-off.

The candidate arrived an hour later, straight from a Dems and Doughnuts gathering in nearby Cobb County. He shook hands, posed for pictures and caught up with his high-school buddies. There were way more Dems than doughnuts at the meeting, Ossoffs communications director, Andy Phelan, told me. Ive never seen enthusiasm like this in a congressional race.

Rolling up his sleeves, Ossoff went door to door with two staffers and a cameraman, carrying a tin of Ice Breakers mints in his pocket. We were in Pine Valley Estates, a leafy Roswell neighborhood with big yards and barking dogs. The first door opened and an eager man in his thirties responded to Ossoffs polite entreatyHi, Im running for Congress and would appreciate your votewith a welcome message: Hey, screw Donald Trump, dude. Im voting for you! Ossoff hadnt even had time to explain his progressive positions on womens issues and health care, or his moderate stances on jobs and security. That was easy, he said. But, at the dozen or so houses that Ossoff tried over the next half hour, most residents simply didnt answer. He put fliers in their doors and headed back to the office park, to find out how his beaming canvassers had fared.

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Can This Democrat Win the Georgia Sixth? - The New Yorker