Wake-up call for GOP: Almost no one is safe

WASHINGTON» The message to Republicans from the Pennsylvania special election was simple: Almost no one is safe.

Rattled Republicans were hit with a dayafter reality check Wednesday after the startlingly strong performance of a freshfaced Democrat deep in Trump country.

House Speaker Paul Ryan privately warned his ranks that the election, still officially undecided, should serve as a “wakeup call” as the party tries to defend its majorities in Congress this fall. Democrats boasted optimistically of an impending wave, and produced a new list of races that suddenly seemed within reach.

Even as ballot counting dragged on with several hundred votes separating Democrat Conor Lamb from Republican Rick Saccone, it was clear the single, short-term contest in western Pennsylvania had sounded the starter’s gun for the battle for control of the House.

Republicans looking for lessons found several. Candidates matter. Campaigns, too. And fundraising. President Donald Trump can’t save them, it seems, not even in a coal-and-steel region he carried by nearly 20 percentage points just 16 months ago.

Trump won more than 100 districts nationwide by narrower margins than that, arguably making them comparably competitive now. Democrats produced an updated watch-list Wednesday of GOP representatives they suggested might want to think about retirement.

In Pennsylvania, the tally of absentee ballots ate into Lamb’s lead slightly, although analysts doubt Saccone will make up the deficit. Officials have seven days to count provisional ballots, and either side can ask for a recount.

“Obviously, this is a very tough environment for Republicans,” said Courtney Al-

exander, a spokeswoman for the Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports GOP candidates for the House. “Now more than ever, candidates and campaigns matter.”

Publicly, Republican officials sought to downplay the outcome as a one-off that won’t be replicated as they protect their majority nationwide this fall, especially if voters start to see benefits from the GOP tax bill in paychecks.

They portrayed Lamb, the 33-year-old former prosecutor, as a unicornlike figure in the Democratic Party whose centrist views — support of gun owner rights, personal opposition to abortion and refusal to back Nancy Pelosi as House floor leader — would not be replicated in other races.

With so many Democrats revved up to run in so many House districts across the country, both sides are expecting a brutal primary season. Republicans are counting on that ending up in their favor, with Democrats nominating more-liberal candidates who won’t survive general elections against GOP rivals.

“The primaries bring them to the left,” Ryan told reporters, and the prospect of more centrist Democratic candidates such as Lamb “is something that you’re not going to see repeated.”

But Democrats, and many outside observers, say Trump’s inability to pull Saccone to victory, after swooping in for a rousing campaign rally days before the election, shows the limits of presidential persuasion and the GOP brand.

Trump still wows the crowds. But the president’s supporters are not necessarily a lock for Republican candidates. Saccone stumbled by relying on Trump’s coattails and failing to raise enough money to push his own message, strategists said.

Pelosi told Democrats to forget about Trump and concentrate on their own message.