DEMS/GOP/POLITICS: “A closely watched special election for a vacant U.S. House seat in Pennsylvania comes to a head Tuesday [3-13-18], in a district that Democrats hope offers them a blueprint for how to win in Trump country.
The race in the 18th Congressional District, between Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone, is by all accounts tight. Both GOP and Democratic internal polling show the race within a few points, officials have said, making it a tossup election in an exurban Pittsburgh district that voted for President Donald Trump by 20 points in 2016.
The closeness of the race has Democrats hoping they can show they can win in a Trump-friendly district, not just in the 23 districts that voted for Hillary Clinton for president and elected a Republican House member in 2016. Democrats need to win a net 24 seats to take control of the House…
The White House said before the president’s Saturday rally, which was organized by the Trump campaign, that Mr. Trump would look to rally his supporters behind Mr. Saccone by positioning his tariffs as a boon to Western Pennsylvania. The president called Mr. Saccone ‘a really good person’ and invited the candidate on stage during the rally.”
-Joshua Jamerson, “Pennsylvania House Race Seen as a Test for Both Parties,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 11, 2018 07:53pm