Ohio's tight race shows Democrats are ready to do battle everywhere

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Ohio's tight race shows Democrats are ready to do battle everywhere
Ross Barkan
In special election after special election, Democrats have proven they can win or compete aggressively on turf Republicans are used to dominating
Wed 8 Aug 2018 09.21 EDT
Last modified on Wed 8 Aug 2018 17.52 EDT


The Republican of 2018 is in a very peculiar spot. The man who took the party hostage and rapidly remade it in his own image, Donald Trump, is nothing short of a demi-god to a significant slice of the Republican electorate – buck him and conservatives will rise up to devour you.

Yet Trump is also the millstone who may sink Republicans this fall. In special election after special election, Democrats have proven they can win or compete aggressively on turf Republicans are used to dominating.
Ohio special election: Republican scrapes ahead in tight race that tests Trump's clout

Doug Jones and Conor Lamb weren’t outliers. They were harbingers of a blue wave that will, in one form or another, crash on the shore this November.

On Tuesday night, Danny O’Connor, a Democrat, ran in a virtual tie with Republican Troy Balderson in a special election for Ohio’s 12th congressional district. Trump, like past Republican presidential candidates, won the district comfortably. Pat Tiberi, who vacated the seat to take a lucrative gig with a business group, is a Republican.

Who wins and who loses is almost beside the point. Republicans, once more, had to expend tremendous money and effort (outspending the opposition) on a district that should easily be theirs. O’Connor is not particularly remarkable as a candidate, but like all Democrats running in a high-profile races now, he is an avatar of the times.

Trump horrifies Democrats and left-leaning voters. They can mobilize in typically low turnout elections, showing up in ways they never did when Barack Obama was president.

This is what anyone on the right should fear. Trump’s hateful and ludicrous administration has energized Democrats in a remarkable way. Republicans hold fewer and fewer safe seats. Towns and counties that swung dramatically into Trump’s column in 2016 are ready to come right back.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/08/ohio-danny-oconnor-democrats-tight-race

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