Posted on 03/14/2018 7:49:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republicans are panicked after Democrat Conor Lamb closed in on a victory over Republican Rick Saccone in a Pennsylvania congressional district that went for President Donald Trump by 20 points in 2016.
That Lamb could perform so well in a district that overwhelmingly supported Trump and had sent a Republican to Congress without much contention for the better part of two decades signaled major challenges for the party as it seeks to maintain its congressional majorities in this year's midterm elections.
"It's really hard to see how anyone looks at the factors Republicans are facing at this time, and the environment Republicans are in, and conclude anything other than that we are heading for a very difficult cycle," a Republican strategist close to the race told Business Insider.
"The narrow margin in a district the president won handily should be a serious wake up call for Republican incumbents across the map," the person added late Tuesday night. "No suburban district is safe and every candidate better be ready for the most difficult cycle of their career."
There are roughly 120 House seats currently controlled by Republicans in districts that are not as solidly Republican as Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.
Lamb's results came on the heels of Democratic Sen. Doug Jones' shocking win in Alabama and big wins for the party in New Jersey and Virginia late last year. As of 12:30 a.m. on the East Coast, Lamb led Saccone by a slim margin of just more than 500 votes with only some absentee ballots outstanding. Lamb declared victory, and Democratic campaign groups followed suit.
Needing a huge boost from those ballots to leapfrog Lamb, Saccone told supporters he was going to "fight" until the very end. But many Democrats already proclaimed Lamb the victor.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
From what I understand, the district has about 50,000 more registered democratics than Republicans. Considering that Lamb was nowhere near as bad as Hillary and Saccone is nowhere near as good as Trump—Then it is a HUGE night for Republicans!
Not sure why this would happen when they kept their promise to repeal commie care.
The DNC and RNC don’t themselves really spend that much. Campaign committees and PACs are increasingly where the money is.
PACs are more favored by donors because the donor retains more control over spending.
Here’s an article noting the various groups’ ad spending in this election:
https://www.nbcnews.com/card/updated-ad-spending-pa-18-11-7-million-n855256
Democrats went in - did ‘focus groups’ - discovered people would vote for a Vet who held conservative beliefs. Then they found one and ran him. In short they ran a Republican-lite, with their superior tactics and won.
Democrats would run Eric Trump if they could. Not that they believe anything he believes, but that doesn’t matter to them.
Democrats want control back... they’ll run whoever can win THEN when they’ve taken back control - the ‘conservatives-lites’ will be sidelined and powerless.
I am one that continues to totally distrust RNC candidates. They reek of the smell of swamp gas that comes with their elitism.
During the Trump campaign, as an independent, I gave funds to the Trump folks. After the election and continuing to this day, I receive mailings and Ppone calls, all marked prominently with the Trump name, but inside they are all RNC solicitations. The prepaid envelopes go back marked - "Not a dime as long as you keep supporting all these Never Trumpers"
We can hope that this special election will result in a backlash in November with the real election in this same district.
Saw the results on Drudge - the Dem’s are more motivated this cycle.
Rather simple to me: the People support Trump, but not wishy-washy Republicans with no message, no charisma, and do not openly support the agenda they want enacted.
I second that “good”. They had better take notice and clean out the RNC leadership. Losses are mounting.
He won by 461 votes by pretending to be a Republican, did not trash talk Trump and said nothing about Guns.
Standard Democrat tactics. He lied his way into office and in 8 months will have to go back to the voters after actually casting votes as a Democrat in Congress.
Lot harder to lie to the voters next time.
I think you are absolutely right. For McConnell and company it is all perks and no responsibility, and they want to keep it that way. Never mind what the voters want or need.
He just got the nomination!! LOL
If voters had a say, Lamb would not be the nominee, it would be a Sanders/ Warren clone!
The Bob Michel Syndrome is alive and well among many GOPe types.
“Cleaned-Up”
They are still counting votes....
Why do they keep calling this district deep red? Democrats have a 50,000-person edge in the district. Calling it purple would be more accurate, IMO.
It's statistically very improbable for races to be this close, this often. I can see 5+ point differences, especially in a very red voting district, but to be less than one point difference is like flipping a coin and it landing on its edge.
Yes, steel barges still ply the three rivers of Pittsburgh, but in much smaller numbers.
Yes, U.S. Steel has a huge impressive high rise building downtown with a parking garage charging nearly $20 per hour during the business day, but most of the tenants are law offices and the like and once 5 pm rolls around, parking drops to $7 for the entire evening, making it an ideal spot to park for a short free zone metro ride to the sports stadiums and cultural districts for the cheese and wine crowd and blue collar voter alike.
You mean, Saccone hasn’t dutifully conceded at the direction of his RINO handlers?
GOP actually poured money into this race, but that won’t stop them from being gleeful about the loss if Saccone is a true conservative.
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