The National Republican Congressional Committee released a new ad Thursday casting Democrat Jon Ossoff as soft on terrorism, ahead of his runoff race against Republican Karen Handel for an open congressional seat in Georgia.
The 30-second “Serious” ad attacks Mr. Ossoff’s national security credentials by accusing the former congressional aide of supporting the nuclear deal that President Obama hashed out with Iran.
“Terrorist in our shopping centers, Jihadists in our streets, and Jon Ossoff supports the dangerous deal allowing Iran billions — Iran the leading state sponsor of terrorism,” the narrator says in the NRCC commercial. “Billions that even John Kerry admits will fund terrorism.”
On his campaign website, Mr. Ossoff vows to take a tough stand on Iran.
“Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism and an avowed enemy of Israel that must not acquire nuclear weapons,” the 30-year-old’s website says. “In Congress, Jon will push strongly for strict enforcement and uncompromising monitoring of Iran’s compliance with obligations to restrict uranium enrichment and to cease ballistic tests.
“He will support the imposition of additional sanctions in response to ballistic missile tests that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and work to strengthen efforts to prevent the flow of arms from Iran to Hezbollah,” it says.
Political handicappers have billed his June 20 runoff against Ms. Handel, a former secretary of state in Georgia, as a “toss-up” and say the race offers Democrats their best chance of flipping control of one of the four seats that were vacated by GOP lawmakers that joined the Trump administration.
Former Rep. Tom Price, who held the 6th Congressional District seat since 2005, resigned to become Mr. Trump’s health secretary.
Republicans have held the seat since 1979 — though Democrats are optimistic that the changing demographics in the district, which is located in the wealthy Atlanta suburbs, have made it friendlier political territory.
Mr. Ossoff won the jungle primary last month, but fell just shy of collecting 50 percent of the vote, which he needed to win the seat outright. Ms. Handel placed a distant second, and is working to unify the party following the divisive primary in which the GOP accused Mr. Ossoff him of puffing up his resume on national security.
The NRCC, the campaign arm of House Republicans, delivered the same message in the ad released Thursday.
“The threat is serious, but Jon Ossoff is not,” the narrator says.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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