President’s strong support powers GOP in S.C. vote
WINNSBORO, S.C. — President Donald Trump’s approval numbers are faltering, and he’s reportedly facing an obstruction-of-justice investigation.
None of that matters to Ralph Norman, the Republican front-runner in South Carolina’s special House election.
At a campaign stop with retirees and at a fundraiser with physicians, at a GOP dinner and in an interview, Mr. Norman was vocal in his support for Mr. Trump before Tuesday’s special election –– a reminder of the embattled president’s continued potency with the GOP base in the country’s many conservative districts.
“I’m in it because I think now’s a special time,” Mr. Norman said in a campaign speech in Winnsboro this past week. “We can talk about President Trump going in. I’m excited about serving with him.”
Despite the investigations and controversies surrounding the Trump administration, the conservative base remains strongly, and defensively, in the president’s corner, which is vividly on display here in the Fifth District.
Unless and until that changes in congressional districts like this one across the country, strategists say, it’s unlikely that Mr. Trump will suffer significant backlash from lawmakers in his own party, no matter how intense the frustrations of those Republicans who worry about a bad national environment for the party headed into 2018, fueled by the president’s unpopularity.
“It’s safe to run to Trump in that district, for the most part. The outlier would be a Republican right now who’s not running to Trump,” said Chip Felkel, a South Carolina Republican strategist. “In districts like SC-5, candidates and incumbents are going to gravitate toward the Trump administration until poll numbers suggest it’s at their own peril.”
The special election to fill the seat vacated by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has been little-noticed, compared with a close biter race unfolding in Georgia on the same day, in a more moderate district where Mr. Trump is a much bigger liability. But the contest here, in a district that stretches from just south of Charlotte, N.C., through Rock Hill and down to the Columbia capital region, will offer a test of the Republican base’s energy five months into Mr. Trump’s term, at a time when Democrats are eager to expand their map.
Mr. Norman, a real estate developer and conservative former state representative, is heavily favored to win. He is competing against Democrat Archie Parnell, a low-key lawyer who spent a significant part of his career overseas with Goldman Sachs, though on the trail his style is less worldly than it is enthusiastic and earnest.
Mr. Trump has recorded a robocall to boost Mr. Norman’s campaign.
In Georgia, on the other hand, Republican Karen Handel has turned to the president for a fundraising lift but otherwise treaded cautiously when speaking of him.