Posted on 03/13/2018 11:17:04 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
CANONSBURG, PA — Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory early Wednesday morning in his razor-tight bid for a Pittsburgh-area House special election, although the race hasn't yet been called.
The seat, which voted for President Trump in 2016 by a 20-point margin, was once considered an easy win for Republicans. But Lamb currently leads Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone by 579 ballots, with some absentee ballots outstanding.
"It took a little longer than we thought, but we did it. You did it," Lamb told supporters at his election night party shortly before 1 a.m., after he was introduced as "congressman-elect."
"We followed what I learned in the Marines — leave no one behind. We went everywhere, we talked to everyone, we invited everyone in."
Lamb's campaign apparently believes that Republican Rick Saccone does not have a path to victory in those remaining ballots, leading to the decision to claim victory
Saccone promised earlier in the night to press, with his campaign telling MSNBC shortly after Lamb's remarks that they will not concede at this point. Media outlets have also not yet called the race.
As of 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, Lamb leads by 579 votes, with a few thousand absentee ballots left to count, largely from GOP-leaning areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
See post#19.
Ever since the Moore debacle it has been bad. Like the RNC is idling doing nothing
Gosh it would be hilarious to see another Democrat declare premature victory and fail. Keep me posted.
What was spending like here, do we know?
The Handel-Ossoff special election last Spring in the GA 6th CD was nuts. Handel won, but it was close because of massive Dem spending. This shouldn’t have been close, but massive Dem spending (?) plus a dud Republican candidate vs. a good Dem one may have lost us a seat.
The Dems really need a win and know it.
I concur with your assessment on Ronna. And I would rehire Reince too if he would take the job.
He can move, or he can even run from outside the district.
“but massive Dem spending (?)”
I don’t know how much was spent but we know for a fact that the dems have gone “all-in” on the vote-fraud.
No thanks...Reince is a rino snake.
Some bad candidates.
It is likely the seat won’t even exist next election.
Doesn’t he have to live in the District to be able to run?
Dunno if that's an obvious conclusion. IMO 2016 was NO HILLARY and this is not.
It’s all about the narrative.
No. For federal office, you only have to be a resident of the state you’re running in. Technically, you could live in Erie and run for a seat in Philadelphia (or vice versa), but you’re not likely to win.
Negative. It is not a requirement to live in a CD, to run for that CD. It’s normally done that way, but is not a requirement.
It’s one of the reasons Jon Ossoff lost against Karen Handel in last Spring’s GA-6th CD special election.
Haven't been able to verify though.
Sod off, swampy.
I read somewhere, might have been on LS’ Twitter feed, that this is a district with a 50,000+ Dem voter advantage? Can anyone confirm that? So if you’ve got a Dem who sounds like a moderate, and is a good campaigner, vs. a lackluster GOPe candidate, the outcome could definitely be close in an off year special election.
I also suspect the news of the Tillerson firing got out at just the wrong time, and the release of that news was not handled well. Maybe that could swing 1% of the vote?
That said, Lamb closed a lot of ground in a couple months, and there is little to suggest that the public’s view of Trump has changed markedly for the worse in that period. If anything, it is better. So, more likely some other factor recently came into play — we need someone “on scene” to best explain, I think. Did the Dems spend 4x or 10x as much as the Pubs?
Shallow thinking and the influence of unions.
‘He sounds better than the q stage Dege state party candidate.’
huh...?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.