SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Just 45 minutes after polls closed Tuesday in Georgia’s 6th District, Keenan Pontoni knew Jon Ossoff was in trouble.

The Democratic candidate’s advantage in early voting didn’t look like it was going to be enough to make up for Republican turnout on Election Day.

But holed up in the campaign’s boiler room in the Westin Hotel, Pontoni, Ossoff’s 30-year-old campaign manager, still saw a path to victory, through outstanding mail-in votes.

In a downstairs ballroom, Ossoff’s supporters were drinking and dancing, occasionally booing when CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced vote percentages unfavorable to their candidate on two giant screens.

Pontoni’s father, who’d come down to Georgia for the election, was worried. Every time he texted his son to check in, he received a discouraging response: “Ugh.”