Barrow holds off GOP challenger in Georgia

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) has held off his Republican challenger, Lee Anderson, to capture a fifth term in the House.

Barrow had faced something of an uphill battle after Georgia Republicans carved up his district in the redistricting process. The GOP also had spent heavily in its efforts to boost Anderson, a state representative.

But the Georgia Democrat campaigned as a candidate who could work across the aisle, and reached out to the district’s black voters. Barrow has captured 54 percent of the vote, CNN reports, with 94 percent of the vote in.

Barrow’s victory is something of pick-me-up for the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, of which the Georgia Democrat is a member. 

Republicans have already defeated two other Blue Dogs, Reps. Ben Chandler (Ky.) and Larry Kissell (N.C.), this year, and the coalition saw its ranks decimated in the 2010 GOP wave. 

Barrow will now remain the only white House Democrat serving in a wide swath of Deep South states, including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. 

In the race, Anderson cast himself as a conservative that better fit the redrawn district, and hit at Barrow for opposing the House GOP’s efforts to repeal the Democratic healthcare overhaul.

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