There are many lessons Democrats should learn from Jon Ossoff’s expensive flame-out. (And they probably won’t.) But the most important might be this: Cozying up to Planned Parenthood is a great way to lose. 

Let’s start by myth-busting. Whatever the Democrats said, Georgia’s Sixth District was not solidly Republican. Susan B. Anthony List’s political consultant Frank Cannon says: “Let’s not rewrite the narrative now that it’s inconvenient for the Democrats. This was not a deep red district that returned to its roots. The Democrats were attempting to flip a suburban district. One where Trump was far less popular than in most Republican districts. On paper, it should have worked.”

The former incumbent Tom Price used to win it by very large margins. That’s largely because the Democrats never contested it. Hillary Clinton came close to carrying it, losing by only 1.5 percent. It was an open seat. The district is filled with white suburban college graduates. That includes lots of moms. Those are the kind of voters whom the Democrats think they can scare. Remember the phony “War on Women”? 

Bottom line: If Democrats are going to take back the House, they must win in districts like this. That’s why the Left threw everything it had at Karen Handel.

The Democrat’s Death Star

Planned Parenthood was one of the Democrats biggest weapons. In fact, it’s their Death Star.

Whether the corporate media will report it or not, the political class must take heed: If you want to win the votes of ordinary Americans, Planned Parenthood makes a terrible running mate.

Jon Ossoff leapt into bed with the nation’s biggest abortion business. He held special roundtables with women. The topic? The “scandal” that Handel wanted to cut off Planned Parenthood’s subsidies from the taxpayer. As the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, “Democrat Jon Ossoff held a roundtable Friday with women’s health advocates and breast cancer survivors as his campaign stepped up the attack on Republican Karen Handel’s stint at a breast-cancer charity.”

Ossoff relentlessly went after Handel in high profile debates. Her crime? Trying to keep anti-cancer money given to the Susan G. Komen Foundation from going to Planned Parenthood’s coffers. “She imposed her own views and cut off funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood,” Ossoff charged in their June 6 debate.

His campaign ran an attack ad calling Handel’s stance “unforgiveable.” This wasn’t an outside group mind you. It was the Ossoff campaign itself. This candidate didn’t just call in the Death Star. He practically lived on it. (Which is just as well, since he didn’t live in the district.)

Selling Baby Parts Doesn’t Win Votes

The national media has been slow to note the significance of Ossoff’s loss for how Planned Parenthood’s extreme abortion stance plays out politically in purplish places. But the local media extensively reported on the sharp contrast that emerged between Ossoff and Handel on the abortion issue: “A split on abortion is one of the starkest contrasts between the two candidates in the nationally-watched June 20 runoff to represent suburban Atlanta’s 6th District. And both candidates are banking that their positions will energize their supporters in the final stretch of the race.” 

Planned Parenthood bet the farm on Ossoff, pouring more than $800,000 into his election. It was his second-largest financial backer, after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. (Again, not much money came to Ossoff from inside his actual district.)

The result? Georgia voters just elected another pro-life woman to Congress. Whether the corporate media will report it or not, the political class must take heed: If you want to win the votes of ordinary Americans, Planned Parenthood makes a terrible running mate. You can’t win House elections by blasting the districts from orbit.

Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List.