In case you missed last week’s big political news, Democrats won an important congressional race in a Republican red district of Pennsylvania. The win follows a Democratic win late last year in the historically GOP controlled state of Alabama. Should Republicans be concerned? You better believe it!
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Despite Donald Trump’s best efforts to affect the end result, Democratic newcomer Conor Lamb beat state Rep. Rick Saccone in a razor-thin but unquestionably major upset. Why is this important, you ask? It’s because, in 2016, Donald Trump won this exact Pennsylvania district by more than 20 percentage points. So, if your next question is “How does a Democrat win anything in a district that is so deeply conservative and overwhelmingly Republican?” you’d be correct to be so curious.
The GOP spent millions on the Pennsylvania race in an attempt to prevent an embarrassing defeat in TrumpLand. Donald Trump himself also traveled to the state to appear at a rally alongside Saccone.
“He’s a very competent person,” Trump bragged in his appearance with the candidate. “He’s a very hard worker. He knows things that many people don’t know. He understands North Korea maybe better than anybody. And, he’s very good looking”
“This is a very extraordinary guy. We need him,” Trump added.
VP Mike Pence and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway also lent (what they believed to be) their crucial support. Even First-Son, Donald Trump, Jr. campaigned with Saccone on the eve of the election.
But in the end, it just wasn’t enough.
Despite a contested count of the results by Saccone, the latest results are as follows:
Conor Lamb, Democrat: 113,813 – 49.8%
Rick Saccone, Republican: 113,186 – 49.6%
Although the percentages are separated by a hair, the lead by Conor Lamb is virtually insurmountable. So, what happened?
After referring to him as the greatest thing since ice cream only days ago, Republicans are now tripping over themselves to back pedal on their own defeated candidate.
“[The] GOP does not view (the race) as a referendum on Trump. Rather a weak candidate,” a White House source said.
“Candidates either run hard or run scared. It was obvious that Saccone decided to run scared,” another West Wing official added.
As for Donald Trump, he is now taking the “I tried to lift him higher, but he was too heavy” route.
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Despite the GOP’s litany of excuses, their narrow loss in the resolutely red Pennsylvania district — combined with their loss last December in the even redder State of Alabama — is an incredibly bad sign for the Republican Party as it prepares for the November midterm elections.
So, what’s the problem, you ask? What is turning red districts and states to Democratic blue, you wonder? The answer is as clear as the nose on your face: DONALD TRUMP!
Trump is quickly becoming a huge drag on the GOP. His Twitter antics, revolving White House door of hirings and firings, failure to accomplish the passage of a single piece of major legislation, and the impending results of the Robert Mueller-led Trump/Russia investigation, is absolutely ruining the Republican brand.
Recognizing the writing on the wall, House Speaker Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants told a closed-door GOP meeting last week that the Pennsylvania election result proves that Republican resolve is dwindling, while Democratic enthusiasm is rising and that all incumbents should begin preparing now for remarkably competitive races.
With Donald Trump as the face of the GOP, truer words have never been spoken.
“The Donald” is ruining the Republican Party and quickly turning them into a laughing-stock. Even for those who wish to call the Alabama loss a “fluke,” the Pennsylvania loss must be respected as a huge wake-up call.
It’s no fluke that Republicans are privately beginning to be concerned. However, with Donald Trump behind the GOP wheel and massive defeats in Alabama and Pennsylvania, they should be.
Top of the morning to you DJ..and thank you for this! I’m not a resident of PA 18th district but I am a native Pennsylvanian and needless to say, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of that Special election. As DJ points out in his post, Trump carried that district by 20 points. However, he won the state of PA by a much slimmer margin. And I’d wager his slim win was mostly due to the assumption of most PA voters (like me) who felt certain that Hillary was going to win PA anyway so some PA voters either didn’t vote or voted 3rd party. But here’s a glaring FACT that Trump, his voters and the GOP, in general canNOT escape: The most important states were Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump won those states by 0.2, 0.7 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively — and by 10,704, 46,765 and 22,177… Read more »