ATLANTA (Reuters) - The costliest U.S. 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.

Days after a lone gunman opened fire on U.S. lawmakers at a baseball team practice in Virginia, a conservative group was running a TV ad in Atlanta that, with no evidence, appears to link the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, to the shooting spree.

Ossoff called the ad “shameful” in a statement. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported that Ossoff’s Republican opponent, Karen Handel, also condemned the ad.

It was an ugly, last-minute twist in the Ossoff-Handel contest for the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated by Tom Price, who resigned after becoming Trump’s secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Total spending in the Georgia race for all candidates has topped $56 million, including tens of millions by outside groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog in Washington, D.C., easily topping the previous record of $29.5 million set in a 2012 Florida race.

Out of the total, $51.9 million has been spent on Handel and Ossoff, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

Envelopes containing a white powder turned up last week in the home mailboxes of Handel and a few neighbors, prompting a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Washington Post reported that the powder was only baking soda and both candidates now are traveling with bodyguards.

The district spans affluent and increasingly diverse suburbs north of Atlanta. It has elected Republicans for decades, but Trump carried it by only 1 percentage point in 2016.

Ossoff, 30, initially drew national attention with the slogan “Make Trump Furious,” inspiring volunteers from as far away as Oregon to knock on doors and make phone calls for him.

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Handel, a 55-year-old former Georgia secretary of state, has painted Ossoff as an inexperienced tool of national liberal interests who does not live in the district he hopes to represent. Like Ossoff, Handel rarely mentions Trump.

Whatever the outcome, the race will not significantly alter the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control the House by a wide margin. But victory could provide a blueprint for Democrats on how to win outside of their urban, coastal strongholds.

Democrats fell short in special House elections earlier this year in Kansas and Montana, in districts that Trump won by double-digits. Also on Tuesday is a race in South Carolina, which Republicans are expected to win handily, for a replacement for Republican Mick Mulvaney, now Trump’s budget director.</s>The most expensive House race in history ended in a win for Republicans as Karen Handel narrowly defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the special election for Georgia’s traditionally red 6th district.

Ossoff and Handel collectively raised a whopping $56.7 million, according to the Center for Responsible Politics, for a race that was widely seen as a test of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Though Georgia’s 6th district, which includes the suburbs of Atlanta, is a traditionally conservative area, Ossoff’s loss is still crushing for Democrats, who have so far been unable to translate anti-Trump sentiment into tangible political gains, including in two other close special elections in deep-red Kansas and Montana districts. But Ossoff’s loss is made worse by the money involved — $24 million from the party and another $8 million from outside groups.

The race was still close enough that Republican officials spent the last few weeks white-knuckled. Not only did Oklahoma’s Rep. Tom Cole openly admit that the race was “referendum on Trump,” administration officials were reportedly unnerved by the amount of time and money they had to throw at a district held by the right for almost four decades. After Ossoff nearly took the district outright in its April primary, outside super PACs quickly stepped in to back up Handel. As of Monday, outside groups had spent a whopping $18 million backing her and attacking Ossoff.

Ossoff’s popularity in the district which Trump carried by only two points was encouraging to Democratic donors, who saw an opportunity to take back a seat before the midterm elections. In fact, the majority of Ossoff’s money came from small donors — 65 percent from donations of $200 or less, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Even Tom Price, who represented the district until Trump tapped him to head the Department of Health and Human Services, said he was shocked by the amount of outside influence involved in the race. “The out-of-state money is crazy,” Price remarked to Handel supporters during a rally.

But despite the influx of donations, Handel — whose traditionally conservative campaign was endorsed by both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence — ultimately did better than some on the right had feared.

Still, Ben Ray Luján, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which spent about $5 million on the race, pointed out that Ossoff “vastly outperform[ed]” past Democrats who tried to take the district.

“There are more than 70 districts more favorable to Democrats than this deep-red district, and Ossoff’s close margin demonstrates the potential for us to compete deep into the battlefield,” Luján said in a statement. “The strong headwinds facing Republicans, incredible grass-roots enthusiasm behind Democrats, and a damaged and exposed House Republican Caucus all clarify that we have the momentum heading into 2018.”

Some other takeaways from the election:
• None By the time the race was called for Handel Tuesday night, with about 99 percent of the districts reporting, she had won by about 5 percentage points, meaning that Ossoff lost significant ground after his near-win in the primary. (He won about 48 percent of that April vote, just short of the 50 percent he needed to take the district and avoid Tuesday’s general election.)
• None The 2012 race for Florida’s 18th district used to be the most expensive House race. Its total: $29.5 million.
• None The two candidates in Georgia’s special election already had almost that much money just in their war chests weeks before the election ended. By May 31, Ossoff raised about $23.6 million, while Handel had raised about $4.5 million. The two each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more by Tuesday.
• None But Handel had the upper hand when it came out outside funding, with outside super PACs spending $18 million on her campaign. Her two biggest outside funders where the Congressional Leadership Fund, a House GOP-linked super PAC, and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Each weighed in with over $6 million.
• Ossoff, who relied less on outside groups and more on smaller donors, still enjoyed roughly $8 million from outside groups.</s>TUCKER, Ga. | The price tag of the Georgia special congressional election has climbed north of $50 million, making it the most expensive House race ever.

The candidates, the national party committees and outside interest groups have all poured money into the race, leaving even one of the pros involved in the effort stunned.

“We can’t spend that sum of money on every race and we won’t spend that sum of money on every race,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers said on MSNBC. “But this race has taken on sort of an outsized impact because it is the only race that the Democrats seem to be focusing on.”

Campaign finance filings show that as of May 31, Democrat Jon Ossoff had raised more than $23 million since entering the race to replace Rep. Tom Price, who vacated the seat to become secretary of Health and Human Services. Republican Karen Handel had pulled in over $4.5 million.

Combined with outside efforts, though, the price tag is much higher.

“The race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel is the most expensive congressional race in history, easily overtaking Florida 18’s 2012 election, which cost $29.5 million,” Sara Swann, of the Center for Responsive Politics, said in an analysis of the race released Monday.

Democrats say the race is a referendum on President Trump. The GOP says it’s a chance for voters to express displeasure with Democrats’ obstruction.

Mrs. Handel suggested Monday that the race would not as close as it is if it were not for Mr. Ossoff’s fundraising edge.

“The Democrats put a lot of money into this,” she told reporters Monday. “I mean not for nothing. A squirrel is going to get a pretty decent percentage of the vote if he has $30 million behind him.”

Mr. Ossoff, meanwhile, downplayed his fundraising advantage, and played up the fact that his campaign has 12,000 volunteers, saying working with that sort of grass-roots energy has been “uplifting and exciting.”

“When you have tens of millions of dollars of attack ads pouring in here from my unaccountable Washington super PACs it is necessary to raise the resources to fight back, and I am proud of the fact that the campaign has done it through small dollar grass-roots fundraising with an average contribution of $50,” he said.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House GOP leaders, has put $7 million into the race and the NRCC has invested $6.7 million.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has funnelled more than $6 million into the race and the Planned Parenthood Action fund has spent over $800,000.

The television and radio airwaves here have been blanketed with campaign ads, and voters have been inundated with phone calls, mailers and canvassers who have been showing up on their doorsteps urging them to vote.

The Ossoff campaign ran ads Monday in which he vowed to prioritize high-tech and biotech research to create more high-paying jobs and to make sure “our military and intelligence community have every tool they need to fight terrorism.” Another ad highlighted Mrs. Handel’s opposition to funding Planned Parenthood.

The Handel campaign ran ads pushing back against the idea that she is anti-woman, and contrasting her record against that of Mr. Ossoff and highlighting the fact that he lives just outside the congressional district.

“I have a proven record in the private sector and in public service — experience want to put to work for you,” Mrs. Handel says in a commercial. “My opponent doesn’t live here, doesn’t share our values. He has raised millions outside of Georgia from Nancy Pelosi and outsiders that just don’t share our priorities.”</s>$40+ Million Has Been Spent In Georgia’s Record-Breaking Special Election

More than $40 million in total campaign and independent expenditures has been spent in the record-breaking special election in Georgia, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Tom Price, who left his seat in Georgia’s 6th congressional district after being tapped by President Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, left Democrats scrambling in an attempt to take over a seat that has been in solid Republican control for decades.</s>SANDY SPRINGS, Georgia — When he ran for president in 1976, Jimmy Carter raised about $33 million and made it to all the way to the White House. In the special congressional election Tuesday near Carter’s Atlanta home, the candidates and outside groups have already spent $40 million and counting.

The race, which pits Democrat Jon Ossoff against Republican Karen Handel, is easily the most expensive House race in American history, captivating both officials in Washington and grassroots activists across the country in the first pitched electoral battle of the Donald Trump presidency.

“Is $40 million a lot for a congressional election? Yes. Is $40 million a lot for a national election? No,” said Randy Evans, a Republican National Committeeman from Georgia.

The 6th congressional district has been held by Newt Gingrich, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who left the seat open when he joined Trump’s Cabinet. So when the contest heated up, people paid attention — partly because it is seen as a referendum on Trump and possibly an early indicator of how the midterm elections could go next year.

"Democrats saw an opportunity, so they went all in," Evans said. "Republicans have responded by saying, ‘That’s our seat, it’s a historic seat, we’re going to go all in.’ And when we you have both teams go all in, it becomes one of these unique historic moments."

Everyone agrees “the money is crazy,” as Price said at a rally for Handel on Saturday.

“It’s taken on a bit of a life of its own,” Ossoff said with a chuckle in an interview with NBC News Sunday.

It was not inevitable. There are other special congressional elections this year, including in places arguably as competitive as these North Atlanta suburbs. And leaders in both parties were, initially at least, not eager to burn through so many millions of dollars so quickly.

But Ossoff became a vessel for the anti-Trump “resistance,” forcing the GOP to counter. With the race close for months, both parties have felt the need to keep upping the ante, leading to a campaign fundraising arms race of historic proportions.

The previous most-expensive House contest was the 2012 battle between Allen West and Patrick Murphy in Florida in which about $30 million was spent.

Ossoff was the fourth Democrat to enter the contest. But when he declared in early January, he had $250,000 in commitments from donors and the support of both Atlanta-area Democratic congressmen, including civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

Lewis called on Democrats to unite behind Ossoff and they did, despite the fact that the candidate had never held public office and was only 30 years old.

"When John Lewis talks, you listen,” said Adam Bozzi of the liberal group End Citizens United, which has helped raise $1.5 million in small online contributions for Ossoff’s campaign.

It helped that candidates from all parties were thrown in together in the first round of the election in April, so groups that typically stay out of party primaries felt comfortable consolidating around one candidate.

One of the first groups to “discover” Ossoff was the liberal blog Daily Kos, which was already eyeing the district after they noticed it had taken a hard turn against Trump in November. Voters in Georgia’s 6th backed Mitt Romney by over 20 percentage points in 2012, but barely favored Trump over Hillary Clinton last year.

The blog’s analysts worried that Democrats would split their vote, so days after Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March, just as liberals were looking for cause, the site endorsed Ossoff. They were not prepared for what happened next.

RELATED: How health care is playing out in the Georgia battle

Their endorsement ricocheted across the country, racking up 135,000 shares on Facebook and sending up flares as far away as Hollywood and San Francisco, where Ossoff, a former documentary filmmaker who talks about making Atlanta the Sillicon Valley of the south, was an instant hit. Within a week, $400,000 poured in through Daily Kos, shattering a previous fundraising record held by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

“The powerful response from the Daily Kos community that immediately followed utterly blew us away,” said the site's political editor, Carolyn Fiddler.

Fundraising begat more fundraising, and Ossoff collected one million contributions at the fastest clip of any candidate in history — faster even than Bernie Sanders’ and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.

At the same time, Democratic leaders in Washington were under pressure to invest more in this spring’s special congressional elections. And thanks to a fluke of scheduling, hundreds of party officials got a close-up look at Ossoff when they came to Atlanta in February for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship race.

Ossoff proved to be a disciplined campaigner who had attracted top-flight strategists, so the official campaign arm of House Democrats felt comfortable pouring more money in than they had in other elections.

Meanwhile, Republicans were divided between 11 candidates in the first round of voting, when they were already filling the airwaves with ads attacking Ossoff and each other.

Once Handel emerged as the GOP nominee, outside groups cranked up the firepower to help her keep pace with Ossoff’s spending. Atlanta is one of the nation’s most expensive places to buy advertising. There’s been so much demand in this race that local TV stations have added broadcasts so they can sell more ad time.

While one seat will do little to change to the makeup up of the House, the race has more than symbolic value.

Across the country, potential candidates and incumbent lawmakers are watching the race closely as they decide whether to run or sit out what could be a tough election year.

"It’s a smart early investment to try to steal a seat, but also to send asignal that this is going to be a good year for Democrats,” said Dave Hamrick, the former political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the lead up to the party's 2006 wave. “The conditions are right to potentially win seats in an expanded set of districts, but you can only do that if you have good candidates on the field."

But Trump is clearly the more immediate issue on the line and on voters' minds Tuesday.

"This is an opportunity for Georgia to send a message to the rest of the county that we want some fresh leadership, that we're not satisfied with the direction Washington is going," Ossoff said.</s>A Missoula firefighter set the new record for the fastest mile with 20 pounds of firefighter gear on Saturday.

Andy Drobeck set the record during the Missoula Mile first responders race. He set the new record at six minutes, eight seconds, which is more than 30 seconds faster than the previous time.

Guinness World Records has yet to officially verify Drobeck's run. Drobeck had a friend follow him on bike and record him running the race as proof.

Drobeck has also competed in Iron Man races and the Seattle Stair Climb, where firefighters climb the 69 stories and 1.311 steps of the Columbia Center. He says events like this improve the physical fitness of the Missoula Fire Department and motivate them to maintain their fitness.

Drobeck is preparing for the upcoming Missoula Half Marathon, which he plans to run in his gear as well. He also wants to break that record, which stands at one hour, 38 minutes, and 20 seconds.</s>A record 65.6 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes due to conflict or persecution by the end of 2016, the United Nations said. The record number includes 22.5 million refugees, 40.3 million internally displaced people and 2.8 million asylum seekers.

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The amount of money spent for all candidates, $56 million, sets a new record for a U.S. House of Representatives seat. The previous record was $29.5 million, set in a 2012 Florida race.