Republican avoids upset in costly Georgia congressional race

Karen Handel, Republican candidate for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, with husband Steve Handel at her side, gives her acceptance speech to supporters at her election night party at the Hyatt Regency at Villa Christina in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Bita Honarvar

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (Reuters) - Georgia Republican Karen Handel won the most expensive congressional race in history on Tuesday, avoiding a Democratic upset in a race that was widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

By a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent, the former Georgia secretary of state defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff, a political newcomer who sought to wrest control of a suburban Atlanta district that has elected Republicans to Congress since the 1970s.