ELECTION/GOP/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Republicans lost support in every special congressional election since President Trump took office, and Ohio’s 12th District on Tuesday [8-7-18] was no exception. A majority of the seats up for special election have historically leaned solidly to the right, and only two Republicans have lost in these races. Tuesday’s results remained too close to call, but Troy Balderson, the Republican candidate, had the biggest drop in support in all the special elections. Mr. Balderson’s current margin is 36 percentage points lower than the 2016 margin of Pat Tiberi, the previous representative in that district. The average drop in margin for Republican candidates in special elections held from 2017 to 2018 was more than 20 percentage points. Since the district was drawn after the 2010 census, Ohio’s 12th has been solidly Republican. Mr. Trump carried it by 11 points in 2016 and Mr. Tiberi, won re-election by 37 points the same year…The Ohio election, waged in the suburbs of Columbus, underscores specific problems facing Republicans, including Mr. Trump’s unpopularity among educated voters and intense political mobilization among Democrats. But it fits in with a national trend that has cut across districts lines, in special elections from Georgia to Montana, to Pennsylvania and Kansas, where Republicans have been winning with sharply diminished margins — or losing outright.”
-Alexander Burns and Denise Lu, “Few Have Lost Races, but All Republicans Have
Lost Support in Special Elections Under Trump,” The New York Times online, August 8, 2018