A close race but in the end, another DEFEAT!
Oh, the Dems were so excited last week. Stories in the Huffington Post about how Dems will mount their big "comeback" in places like Ohio by winning a special congressional election in a typically Republican district. Twitter was all agog with the Politico story that there was a big Democrat "surge" in Ohio.
Close but no cigar. After massive overspending by the Democrat candidate and an effort that included Democrats from other states offering to share donations it wasn't enough. In the end Republican Troy Balderson beat Democrat Danny O'Connor by 50.2 to 49.3%.
Dems thought it would be another rerun of the Connor Lamb victory in Pennsylvania. Remember Lamb? The candidate who was shown firing his AR-15 rifle in a campaign ad. And the gun grabbers who would go ballistic if a Republican did that were silent. I'm not aware of Danny O'Connor firing any weapons but he did promise not to vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker. But then he walked it back. Like anyone believes these Dems will NOT be Pelosi's pawns!
The Ohio 12th is a district I know well. The rally where President Trump inspired voters on Saturday was on the same road where 26 years ago I was putting up yard signs for John Kasich's first election to Congress. Now Governor, Kasich and I reminisced about that time during this visit to Hilton Head prior to the 2016 South Carolina presidential primary.
While the district is predominantly white and Republican one third is made up of precincts in Franklin County which has a 16 point Democrat advantage.
The close result is a warning to Republicans that they need to improve their get out the vote effort. But it would be a mistake to make too much out of a special election. Especially since Republicans have won all but one since Trump was elected.
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