People: Conor Lamb
Democrat seems to be winning in PA 18th District

Strong Performance by Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania Shakes Trump and G.O.P.

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Strong Performance by Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania Shakes Trump and G.O.P. Conor Lamb, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, claimed victory at a rally in Canonsburg, Pa., early Wednesday. Credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — President Trump was hanging out here in the land of earthquakes, but he was 2,500 miles away from the tremor that really shook his party on Tuesday night.

While the president hobnobbed with wealthy donors in the exclusive enclave of Beverly Park, the voters in the suburbs south of Pittsburgh were in revolt, giving the Democratic candidate a narrow lead in a special election in Pennsylvania that was taking on outsize proportions.

Just as they did outside Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala., in December, and Richmond, Va., and Washington, D.C., in November, energized and angry suburban voters were swamping the Trump stalwarts in the more rural parts of those regions, sending a clear message to Republicans around the country.

While Republican turnout in a district that Mr. Trump won by 20 percentage points was healthy, Democrats showed once again that they could tap unions and other traditionally friendly groups to get their voters out in droves. The N.A.A.C.P. helped win Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Alabama Senate seat for Doug Jones in December. Organized labor, once seen as fractured and feckless in the Trump era, gave the Democrat Conor Lamb his lead in Pennsylvania overnight.

U.S. & POLITICS By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 00:38 Conor Lamb Declares Victory in Pennsylvania Video Conor Lamb Declares Victory in Pennsylvania

There is no official result yet in Pennsylvania’s House race between the Democrat, Conor Lamb, and the Republican, Rick Saccone, but Lamb declared victory early Wednesday. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Photo by Gene J. Puskar/The Associated Press. Watch in Times Video » Embed ShareTweet

Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate who wrapped himself in Mr. Trump’s cloak and drew the president to his district last weekend in a bid to rescue a faltering campaign, trailed Mr. Lamb, a former Marine seeking to show his party can compete even in red territory. Mr. Lamb held a lead of just 641 votes early Wednesday, with some absentee ballots still to be counted, but Democrats went ahead and claimed victory.

Whether Mr. Lamb holds on to win the House seat matters less than the fact that he was so competitive in the first place. The rebuke of Mr. Trump came from a part of western Pennsylvania that overwhelmingly supported him in 2016 and that typically would not seem likely to turn to a Democrat. The district is seen as so strongly Republican that the Democrats did not even field a candidate in recent years.

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RECENT COMMENTS

Ron Cohen 5 minutes ago The biggest lesson of this election cycle is operational: the Dems can only win if they combine enthusiasm of their base with crossover...

Victor 24 minutes ago As some readers point out, the Democrats still don't have a clear message. Conor Lamb gave a terrific short speech last night that makes the...

Chris 24 minutes ago What's interesting here is that the Democrats may have found the formula to win many seats in the House: stop treating every race like a...

And while Mr. Saccone carried the most Trump-supporting counties along the West Virginia border, Mr. Lamb made just enough inroads in those rural areas to give the voters in suburban Allegheny County the chance to deliver the Democrat the slimmest of leads.

The stinging message could hardly have been more pointed for a Republican president mired in low approval ratings, burdened by investigations and facing the growing likelihood that Democrats may seize power in Congress later this year.

Mr. Lamb, 33, defied political geography and appeared on the verge of capturing the state’s 18th District despite a torrent of Republican money and Mr. Trump’s personal intervention. At a rally Saturday, Mr. Trump mocked Mr. Lamb as “Lamb the Sham,” promised that Mr. Saccone would “vote for us all the time,” and rambled about his own achievements as he sought to transfer his own political success to the Republican candidate.

Photo

Rick Saccone, the Republican congressional candidate, spoke to supporters in Elizabeth Township, Pa., on Tuesday night as results came in that showed him behind in a race that was too close to call. Credit Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

In the end, none of it seemed to be enough. Democratic enthusiasm appeared to overwhelm a part of the state that has long been a Republican stronghold. For the president, the vote is an ominous echo of Democratic victories in Virginia and Alabama, where his political efforts were shrugged off or counterproductive.

The tally was also a blunt rejection of the president’s political calculation that tax cuts and steel tariffs would persuade voters in a region once dominated by the steel industry to embrace the Trump agenda on behalf of Mr. Saccone. “Steel is back,” he repeatedly said at the rally, apparently to little effect.

A Republican victory in Pennsylvania might have helped deflect attention from the continuing collapse of the president’s inner circle, which Tuesday included Mr. Trump’s abrupt firing of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and the forced resignation of John McEntee, one of Mr. Trump’s closest personal aides, who is under investigation for financial crimes and was marched out of the White House.

Instead, Mr. Saccone’s lackluster performance was a grim bookend for a day in which the president’s trip to the Mexico-California border to view wall prototypes was completely overshadowed by the churning turnovers in his national security team.

Mr. Trump and Republican Party leaders had desperately sought to head off an outcome that was once thought of as politically impossible. Conservative groups spent more than $10 million in the hopes of defeating Mr. Lamb, who received similar help from Democratic politicians like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Pennsylvania Special Election Results: 18th Congressional District See full results and maps of the Pennsylvania special election.

A barrage of Republican advertisements condemned Mr. Lamb as a “Rubber Stamp for Nancy Pelosi,” the Democratic leader in the House. One flier sent to voters showed Mr. Lamb firing an assault weapon, an attempt to weaken the Democrat’s support among liberal voters. A deceptive video purported to show Mr. Lamb in a fight with labor unions.

But in recent weeks, polls in Pennsylvania consistently showed Mr. Saccone’s popularity slipping, and Mr. Lamb gaining traction. Visits by Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials did little to buck up the party’s candidate.

By the time Mr. Trump arrived in Moon Township, Pa., for the rally, the race had tightened significantly, and many White House and Republican Party officials were already worried that he was lending his support to a lost cause.

As it turned out, they may have been right. During the rally, Mr. Trump called Mr. Saccone “an extraordinary person” and dismissed Mr. Lamb as someone who should not be trusted by voters in western Pennsylvania. 35 COMMENTS “The people of Pittsburgh cannot be conned by this guy Lamb, because he’s not going to vote for us,” Mr. Trump said. He also added a half-dozen presidential tweets over the last week. On Tuesday night, as he huddled in the home of Edward Glazer, an owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and his wife, Shari, he had nothing to say on the matter. Peter Baker reported from Los Angeles, and Michael Shear from Washington. Follow Peter Baker and Michael Shear on Twitter: @peterbakernyt @shearm. RELATED COVERAGE House Race in Pennsylvania May Turn on Trump Voters’ Regrets MARCH 2, 2018 Why G.O.P. Is Spending Millions on a Soon-to-Vanish Seat in Trump Country MARCH 8, 2018 Trump Hosts Fiery Rally on the Heels of a Whirlwind Week MARCH 10, 2018