CAMPAIGN WATCH. Democrats are hoping a Sept. 23 Georgia Senate special election could give them an early boost heading into the midterms — and a test of voter sentiment on President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff was the latest party leader to campaign for Democrat Debra Shigley, who’s trying to flip a GOP-held state Senate seat covering parts of Fulton and Cherokee counties. On the trail this weekend, Ossoff linked her race to his own reelection message, spotlighting the decision of St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia to shift its labor and delivery services to Athens.

The hospital cited Medicaid cuts as part of its decision. Those cuts stem from the new Republican tax and spending law, which slashes $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade to help finance tax reductions and increases in defense and immigration enforcement.

“You know we talk about these things in theory. This is real,” Ossoff said. “This is a hospital here in Georgia that is no longer going to be able to provide services to delivering mothers and newborn babies because of that terrible bill that they passed in Congress.”