Democrats cannot figure out how to beat the GOP in the South. Looking ahead, political parties may need to recall the actions of successful candidates of the past — and heed their winning ways and charismatic messages.

Former President Barack Obama found that formula: He used his faith, cultural references and pop-culture remarks to pull off his wins for the presidency.

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“I heard a sermon about hope and faith and the love of Jesus Christ,” Obama said in Macon, Georgia, back in 2008. “During the course of the sermon, I was introduced to Jesus in a way that I had not been introduced before. I learned that my sins could be redeemed if I placed my trust in Him.”

In January 2008, Obama addressed the congregation at Harvest Cathedral in Macon, Georgia. He explained how he found his faith at Trinity United Church of Christ on the south side of Chicago.

“It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle one day and get baptized,” Obama said.

The former president wasn’t raised “in a particularly religious household,” he told the assembled crowd, but he came to realize something was missing in his life.

Obama, now 55, started attending Trinity United — pastored, of course, by the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright — in the late 1980s.

During his first run for the presidency, the GOP unsuccessfully used inflammatory pronouncements by Rev. Wright against Obama.

Obama’s opponent at the time — Sen. John McCain of Arizona — won much of the South in 2008, including the state of Georgia. However, Obama won areas of Georgia, including Atlanta and Macon.

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A review of Obama’s eventual presidential win that year could provide a lesson for Democrats as they look ahead.

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In a special House election this week in Georgia, Republican Karen Handel defeated her Democratic contender, though liberals spent millions in the battle against her.

On Tuesday evening, Handel, 55, won the U.S. House seat for the 6th Congressional District, defeating Democrat Jon Ossoff by 52 percent to 48 percent. The special election was the most expensive U.S. House election in the nation’s history — candidates and outside groups reportedly spent over $55 million.

Related: Where Our Presidents Have Prayed

Tom Price, the new Health and Human Services secretary, vacated the seat in the northern suburbs of Atlanta.

On Twitter, President Donald Trump congratulated Handel. “Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare, Tax Cuts,  Security,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “Obstruction doesn’t work!”