DEMS/ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Becky von Zastrow often votes Republican in her affluent central Ohio suburb – but her dissatisfaction with U.S. President Donald Trump has convinced her to back the Democrat in a special-election test for both parties next month. Her change of heart, reinforced by Trump’s handling of last week’s Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, could bode well for Democrat Danny O’Connor, a 31-year-old local officeholder running for an Ohio congressional seat Republicans have held since 1982. In interviews with a dozen women, mostly Republicans, in the Midwestern state’s 12th Congressional District, several said they would buck their voting habits to support the Democratic candidate on Aug. 7, citing Trump as a major factor. Others said they disapproved of the president’s behavior but had yet to make up their minds about the congressional contest. Strategists say winning over white, educated, suburban women in dozens of Republican-leaning districts will be key to Democrats’ efforts to retake the U.S. House of Representatives in Nov. 6 congressional elections. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to flip the 435-seat chamber and get a chance to block Trump’s legislative agenda.”
–Tim Reid, “Citing Trump, some Republican women to vote Democratic in Ohio election,” Reuters, July 27, 2018 3:05 pm