Pa. House election hits final day of campaign
CANONSBURG, PA. » The final day of campaigning Monday before votes are cast in western Pennsylvania’s closely watched congressional election drew a visit by Donald Trump Jr. and lots of door-knocking all over the southwestern district where polls show a close race.
President Donald Trump tweeted about “steel and business” in a final push to sway voters while Donald Trump Jr., visiting a candymaking business, touted Republican Rick Saccone as someone who will be “helping fight with my father” for jobs to come back from overseas.
Saccone, a 60-year-old state lawmaker, has struggled with an electorate that favored Trump by nearly 20 percentage points just 16 months ago. He’s up against 33-year-old Conor Lamb, who pitches himself as an independent-minded Democrat.
Trump Jr., eating ice cream with Saccone at Sarris Candies in front of dozens of cameras, said Trump supporters “gotta stay in the game, they gotta stay motivated.”
“Our guys just can’t take winning for granted,” Trump Jr. said. “They have to get out there, they have to continue this fight, now, for the rest of ‘18, in ‘20 and in eight years we can make a big difference. They just can’t be lazy. They’ve gotta get out and vote, and if they get out and vote, we win easily.”
Lamb mostly stayed away from the cameras Monday, spending his final day knocking on doors in suburbs and small-towns outside Pittsburgh.
The outcome Tuesday of Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers, left, lifts up Democratic candidate Conor Lamb’s hand as the crowd erupts in cheers and chants during a rally, Sunday at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Waynesburg, Pa. Lamb is running against state Rep. Rick Saccone for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District in a special election on Tuesday.
2018’s first congressional elections is a barometer ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Democrats must flip 24 GOP-held seats to claim a House majority. An upset would embolden them as they look to win in places where the party has lost ground in recent decades, and it would spook Republicans about their prospects in this tempestuous era of Trump.
The president’s son was the latest in a line of national pro-Trump figures to appear with Saccone, a strong Trump supporter who boasts one of the most conservative voting records in Pennsylvania’s Legislature.
That hasn’t given Saccone much traction against Lamb, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor, in a district with influential labor unions and a long history of coal mining and steel-making.
A poll released Monday
telling voters he wouldn’t back Pelosi for speaker if Democrats won a House majority.
Lamb, however, keeps to party orthodoxy on unions.
He blasts the new Republican tax law as a gift to the wealthy and paints congressional Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, as a threat to Social Security and Medicare.
The combination has been enough to stoke excitement among the Democratic base, while giving Lamb an opening to reach moderates he’ll need for a winning coalition.
“I was really down after the presidential election, but Conor has me totally enthusiastic again,” said Patricia Bancroft, 62, as she took a break from working the phones at Lamb’s Allegheny County field office Monday afternoon.
“He’s the first candidate I’ve ever put a sign in my yard for and volunteered Republican Rick Saccone, right, acknowledges the crowd during a campaign rally with President Donald Trump, Saturday in Moon Township, Pa. Saccone is running against Democrat Conor Lamb in a special election being held on March 13 for the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District vacated by Republican Tim Murphy. for,” said Bancroft, adding in districts drawn that she’s worked two shifts by Republicans. Registered a week for Lamb since meeting Democrats still outnumber him in January. Republicans by almost a
Bancroft, who recently four-to-three ratio in a district retired as a nurse practitioner, where gun rights are is a registered Democrat a high priority, and Democrats in Washington County, still hold some local but Lamb managed to attract offices. her Republican husband, Saccone had a full schedule as well. of retail visits Monday,
A 68-year-old retired engineer including at an ambulance who described himself company. Touring the as a “John KasichDaddy candy-maker, he greeted Bush Republican,” workers and urged them to Bruce Bancroft said he always vote. voted for Murphy, but “Bring your friends and finds Saccone too strident family, drag them out,” he for the district and an already told hair-netted employees acrimonious Congress. boxing up chocolate for Easter.
“I don’t agree with Conor Saccone on Monday insisted on every issue,” Bruce Bancroft he did not support said. “But he is fairminded, cuts to Medicare or Social analytical, reasoned. Security, and accused the We need more people left of trying to scare seniors. like that in Congress on He also said he didn’t both sides of the aisle.” give the Monmouth poll
The areas outside Pittsburgh much credence. have trended away “We’re out meeting people from conservative Democratic every day and everywhere representation in I get it’s 100 to 1 for Congress and the state Rick Saccone,” Saccone Legislature to Republican said. “So I’m ready. I’m over the last two decades ready for tomorrow.”