WASHINGTON – President Trump put his political standing on the line in western Pennsylvania’s special congressional election on Tuesday. He lost.
Republicans and their allies threw every attack in their political arsenal at Democrat Conor Lamb. They apparently fell short. The GOP found that its big corporate tax cut had scant appeal in a district that had voted for Trump by nearly 20 points. They pulled ads on their major achievement.
Many blue-collar voters seemed interested in coming back to their old Democratic loyalties after years of straying Republican. Lamb, a pro-union Marine veteran with deep roots in Pennsylvania’s 18th District, opened the door for them to return home after a long time away.
Lamb’s showing against Republican Rick Saccone – Lamb led by 641 votes with almost all of the votes counted – broadened the Democrats’ opportunities in this fall’s midterm elections. Republicans are vulnerable even in Trump’s 2016 heartland.
The main path for a Democratic takeover of the House runs through Republican-held districts where Hillary Clinton defeated or lost only narrowly to Trump in 2016. But Lamb demonstrated that more moderate Democrats could harvest anti-Trump votes without waging an anti-Trump campaign.