ARIZONA/ELECTION/GOP/HOUSE OF REPS/TRUMP PEOPLE: “It took a big money push from the Republican Party, tweets by the president and the support of the state’s current and former governors, but the GOP held onto an Arizona U.S. House seat they would have never considered endangered in any other year. Tuesday’s [4-24-18] narrow victory by Republican Debbie Lesko over a Democratic political newcomer sends a big message to Republicans nationwide: Even the reddest of districts in a red state can be in play this year. Returns showed Lesko winning by about 5 percentage points in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District where Donald Trump won by 21 percentage points…The former state senator defeated Hiral Tipirneni, a former emergency room physician who had hoped to replicate surprising Democratic wins in Pennsylvania, Alabama and other states in a year where opposition to President Trump’s policies have boosted the party’s chances in Republican strongholds. Republican political consultant Chuck Coughlin called Tuesday’s special election margin ‘not good’ for national Republicans looking at their chances in November.”
-Bob Christie and Anita Snow, “GOP unsettled by narrow win in US House race in Arizona,” The Associated Press, April 25, 2018 11:50 am