Penn. results may bode well for Democrats

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump returned to the White House from California on Wednesday, he flew above a political landscape that looks increasingly dire for him and the Republicans after a setback in Pennsylvania.

A loss in a special election in a Republican-friendly House district, despite the president’s very public support of the GOP candidate, is more evidence that an anti-Trump backlash could carry the Democrats to a congressional majority in the November elections.

“Let it be known that the Blue Wave of 2018 began in Pennsylvania,” said Jack Hanna, that state’s Democratic chairman. “And this is only the beginning of the wave.”

While Republicans downplayed the apparent victory of Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania over state legislator Rick Saccone, political analysts said things look good for Democrats as they try to wrest House and Senate majorities from the Republicans and Trump.

With all of the absentee ballots counted, Lamb held a 627-vote lead out of more than 224,000 cast, according to unofficial results.

An unknown number of provisional ballots have yet to be counted, and the four counties in the Pittsburgh area district have seven days to finish that task.

Trump backers cast the Pennsylvania race as a “one-off” that won’t be replicated nationwide in November. Republicans also said the voter turnout strategies they used to help elect Trump in 2016 will enable them to keep control of the House and the Senate in 2018.