Democrats look for a Conor Lamb redux in Ohio's special election
O'Connor and Spenser Stafford got engaged this year and will tie the knot in 2019. The 28-year-old lawyer and lifelong Republican represents the kind of voter O'Connor has to win if he is going to be the latest Democrat to overperform in a special election: White, educated and suburban Republican women who have been turned off by President Donald Trump.
"I'm a Danny-crat," Stafford said as the couple knocked doors in Clintonville, a hip neighborhood just barely inside Ohio's 12th Congressional District.
Democratic operatives, in both Ohio and Washington, are hoping the race between O'Connor and state Sen. Troy Balderson will shape up to be a redux of Conor Lamb's upset victory over Rick Saccone earlier this year.
Republicans argue Balderson, who has the backing of retiring Rep. Pat Tiberi and millions in outside funding, is a far better candidate than Saccone. But the stakes are high for the party: Another special election where Democrats overperform historic norms will be seen as the latest sign that the party out of power is poised to win the House in November.
There are noticeable similarities between O'Connor and Lamb. Both are white men who represent the more moderate strain of liberalism inside the Democratic Party and are trying to represent districts with a Republican tilt that went for Trump in 2016 by, in part, focusing on the need to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader of House Democrats.....
O'Connor use of Kasich in a television ad also raises a difficult issue for Balderson, an understated Republican from the district's eastern reaches in Zanesville, Ohio.
Kasich has noticeably not backed Balderson's campaign, a fact that the candidate tried to dismiss to CNN by arguing that the race "isn't about endorsements."
Shortly after that comment, though, Balderson excitedly said Trump's endorsement would clearly help him.
"It would be great," he said from the Marion County Fair. "This community would love to see President Trump here. If we could get him here, that would be great."
The inconsistency is rhetorical proof of the divide playing out in the Republican Party -- and in the Ohio race. To Balderson, Trump is a blessing, Kasich is a drag.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/07/politics/ohio-special-conor-lamb-redux/index.html