Trump tries to save reliable GOP House seat with Ohio rally
Expect ‘red wave’ in November, president tells his supporters
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dove headfirst into a House special election Saturday evening, aiming to give Ohio Republican Troy Balderson a final push four days before Election Day.
The race in the suddenly competitive 12th District between the state lawmaker and Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor, polls say, is now essentially tied. Trump and Republican leaders are eager to keep the seat in GOP hands after the retirement of former Republican Rep. Pat Tiberi earlier this year.
That the president interrupted his 11-day working vacation at his New Jersey golf resort to take his unique bully pulpit to the district shows just how alarmed top Republicans are about the erosion of Balderson’s once-healthy lead. Voters in the district head to the polls Tuesday, and Trump urged rally attendees to help drive up Republican turnout.
The special election’s outcome, in a reliably GOP district in a state Trump won in 2016, is an early test of his influence with voters — and whether there is significant concern about his performance and policies.
“We’re going to have a tremendous victory for Troy,” Trump said Saturday, adding, “he’s the one I wanted to win” a GOP primary there in May over Melanie Leneghan. The president claimed there was a “false report that I was supporting somebody else.”
“He’s my first choice,” Trump said. “He’s really smart. He never stops working. He’s going to hopefully be here for a long time.”
‘I need your vote’
The president, as he often does at rallies where one GOP candidate is the focus, invited Balderson onstage to address the crowd from behind the podium with the seal of the president.
The candidate told the audience, “I need your vote on Aug. 7 so I can go to Congress and represent you and fight alongside this good man, this great man, President Trump to make America great again,” borrowing Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan. He also touted the health of the economy and made a direct plea to the districts senior citizen voters, saying he and Trump will protect Social Security and Medicare.
He charged O’Connor would “fight against the policies that are turning our country around.”
Minutes earlier, the ever-contrarian president said pundits’ predictions that Democrats will make big gains in November’s midterm elections will turn out to be wrong.
“They’re talking about this blue wave,” Trump said. “I don’t think so.” And he again told an audience of supporters in the high school gym that Rep. Maxine Waters of California is now “leading the charge” for Democrats in Washington. He said he expects a “red wave.”
‘Build that wall’
Trump wasted no time celebrating his 2016 upset win and ticking off a list of things he has done since taking office and his view of the state of the country. “The economy is booming,” he said. “This is where the action is.”
“What a victory,” Trump said to lead off his remarks. He then dinged the media for some commentators saying he might lose the state to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
He touted his administration’s “love” for law enforcement entities like the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — which prompted the crowd to chant “build that wall.”
A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday showed Balderson narrowly leading O’Connor 46 percent to 45 percent. (With a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points; Monmouth surveyed 512 district voters by telephone from July 26-31.) That’s a significant change from just one month ago, when Balderson had a 9point lead.
Republican officials and outside groups have gone into all-hands-on-deck mode to try and shove Balderson over the finish line first. Gov. John Kasich — who once held the 12th District seat — came off the sidelines to endorse the GOP nominee, even cutting an ad for the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to House GOP leadership.