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> (CNN) The special election for Georgia's sixth district is on its way to being the single most expensive House race in American history, according to calculations made by Politico .

If all current TV ad reservations are completed, the pricetag for the race between Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff will be $29.7 million -- eclipsing the $24.4 million spent on TV advertising in the 2012 Florida 18th district race between Rep. Allen West (R) and Patrick Murphy (D), according to stats provided by the Center for Responsive Politics . (In 2016, the most expensive House race was for Speaker Paul Ryan's 1st district, with a cost of $21.3 million .)

That is a massive amount of money to be one of 435 House members. And, if Ossoff wins, to be a member of the minority party no less.

Why the incredibly high pricetag? A confluence of factors:

t: Georgia's sixth district is covered by the Atlanta media market. While not as expensive as the New York City or Washington, D.C. media markets, Atlanta is still an expensive place to buy television ads. ( Atlanta is the 10th biggest media market in the country .) That means that if a candidate or campaign committee or super PAC wants to make a real impression with voters in the district, they are talking about a multi-million dollar investment.

Ossoff's massive fundraising: In the first three months of 2017, Ossoff, a political unknown prior to this year, raked in $8.3 million -- an unheard of sum in a House race. That huge haul was due in large part to the fact that Ossoff became a sort of cause célèbre for liberal donors trying to send a message to President Donald Trump. : In the first three months of 2017, Ossoff, a political unknown prior to this year, raked in $8.3 million -- an unheard of sum in a House race. That huge haul was due in large part to the fact that Ossoff became a sort of cause célèbre for liberal donors trying to send a message to President Donald Trump. Ninety five percent of donors to Ossoff through March 29 came from outside of the state of Georgia

The polls: This is a very close race. Both : This is a very close race. Both public and private polling suggests that it is, as of today, a true tossup. Which means that moving a point or two either way could make a huge difference. The prospect of being the deciding voice in a race with this much national import attracts all sorts of outside spending on both sides of the aisle.

* The calendar: The free-for-all primary -- in which Ossoff and Handel finished one-two -- was on April 18. The one-on-one runoff isn't until June 20. That two-month gap between votes is unusual (runoffs tend to be held closer to the first vote) and allows candidates and national parties to raise and spend vast sums that they wouldn't be able to do in a shorter time frame. It's also worth noting that there simply aren't a whole lot of races happening right now -- meaning that if you want to spend money somewhere, Georgia is the only game in town.

* The stakes: This is probably the most important factor of all. Both national parties see this race as a must-win because of the impact a loss would have on their national message. For Democrats, an Ossoff win -- in a district considered safely Republican for decades -- would provide a major momentum boost and help not only with their fundraising but also with their candidate recruitment for 2018. Republicans see a Handel win as evidence that despite the talk of Trump dragging their candidates down, there's no proof he will.

You combine all of those factors and you get an extremely expensive House race. The most expensive House race ever. </s> Bipartisan love may be on display in Washington, but farther down the coast, a vicious political battle is underway for Georgia’s 6th District.

Groups hoping to influence the election have spent nine times more money attacking the candidates than they have running positive ads since the jungle primary in April, a Roll Call review on Friday of Federal Election Commission filings found.

The parties’ congressional arms have led the scorched-earth battle, each dropping roughly $5 million in the district since the primary. Nearly all that money went to attacking the opposing candidate.

Huge contribution totals going directly to the candidates have also boosted the campaigns, though that fundraising has mostly been directed toward Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff. He reported raising $23.6 million through the end of May, while Republican Karen Handel brought in $4.3 million.

Not all that money, of course, came from within the suburban Atlanta district, or even from the state. Just about 13 percent of the donations to Ossoff that totaled more than $200 came from Georgia donors.

Handel, who’s received 45 percent of her money from within the state, has hit Ossoff on the issue — voters in Georgia, she said earlier this month, “are not interested in people from California, Massachusetts and New York buying this seat.” The Congressional Leadership Fund, which has spent at least $3.5 million since the primary to help Handel, has also made that a central line of attack.

Ossoff narrowly missed winning the once deep-red seat — vacated in January by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price — outright during the April open primary.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, another special election is set for Tuesday between Democrat Archie Parnell and Republican Ralph Norman.

The Palmetto State’s 5th District — previously represented by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney — isn’t seen as the same kind of fertile ground for Democrats to pick up a GOP-leaning seat. President Donald Trump carried the district by 19 points in 2016, according to calculations by Daily Kos Elections, and Mulvaney beat his opponent by a similar margin.

Norman has outperformed Parnell in fundraising by about 70 percent, though neither has brought in anything close to the amounts raised in Georgia. Also different than the Georgia race: Most of the money donated to Norman and Parnell has come from within their home state.

The national parties’ congressional campaign committees have gotten involved in South Carolina, though in a much more modest way than in Georgia. The DCCC announced earlier in June it would funnel $275,000 into Parnell’s bid, and the GOP committee has invested $100,000 in the race in a joint ad buy with Norman.

Outside spending from other organizations has also been lower. Only two conservative outside groups — the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund —have put up their own cash since the primary there last month, and both have stayed under $10,000.

Simone Pathé contributed to this report. Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android. </s> Next month, Republican Karen Handel will square off against Democrat Jon Ossoff in a runoff to replace former Georgia congressman Tom Price, who resigned when he was appointed Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary. Handel and Ossoff were the top two finishers in an all-party primary, in which Ossoff received 48 percent, outperforming Hillary Clinton’s 46 percent in the district.

One thing is for sure: the Georgia special election is set to be the most expensive House race in history. Both Republicans and Democrats are slated to pour tens of millions into the campaign over the next month.

Candidates and outside groups have aired or reserved more than $29.7 million worth of TV ads in the race to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Congress, which will break a five-year-old record for House spending — highlighting the outsize importance a sliver of the Atlanta suburbs has taken on in national politics. It is plainly more money than one House race out of 435 needs. Cash is flowing in at such saturation levels that Democrat Jon Ossoff’s campaign had the money for everything from Korean radio ads to free Lyft rides for voters on primary day. The Atlanta NBC station has even bumped reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” from their regular slot in order to extend its local newscasts and make more room for political ads.

RELATED: President Trump singles out one election where he thinks Republicans should be afraid

Ossoff’s campaign is being propelled by small-dollar donations, mostly from outside of the district. He’s tapped into the progressive anger over President Donald Trump’s election and effectively nationalized the race.

Meanwhile, President Trump had a fundraiser for Handel that raised hundreds of thousands for her campaign. House Speaker Paul Ryan has also stepped up for Handel by raising hundreds of thousands more. In addition, House Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund plans on dumping $8.5 million into the race, which has set a new record for outside spending.

Why is this race so important? For starters, it already is a defeat for Republicans. The fact that Ossoff got 48 percent of the vote in what was a deeply red district means that Republicans are vulnerable nationwide. Progressives are as energized now as the tea party was in 2010.

RELATED: Meet the new party of “no”: the Democrats

This district is also important because it’s a must-win for Democrats if they plan on taking back the House of Representatives in 2018. Georgia’s Sixth is a suburban enclave of Atlanta that is trending younger and has had an influx of minority voters. If Democrats cannot win here, they will have a tough time flipping other Republican seats.

The battle in Georgia’s special election will go down to the wire, but one thing is for sure: neither party is leaving anything on the table. </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.
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.