Trump Didn't Run In PA House Race But Still Lost

PITTSBURGH, PA - Donald Trump's name wasn't on the ballot, but he lost an election last week.

In a special congressional election in southwestern Pennsylvania last week, Democrat Conor Lamb seemingly defeated Republican Rick Saccone by fewer than 1,000 votes out of more than 225,000 cast. The election likely won’t be certified for several weeks.

Saccone might have lost the race but Trump, who strongly supported him, might have lost even more. Many pundits opined that the election was a referendum on the president - among them William J. Green, a Pittsburgh public relations executive who served as former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh’s press secretary.

“How could it not be? (Trump) set it up that way,” Green told Patch. “He came to town here twice, the vice president came here twice (for Saccone). If he didn’t want it to be a referendum he would have just
kept away, let whatever happened happen and not given the national media the opportunity to label (the election) a Trump failure if things didn’t work out.”

Saccone, a state representative, and Lamb, an ex-Marine and former federal prosecutor, ran in the special election to replace former Republican Rep. Tim Murphy. The conservative, pro-life Murphy resigned in October amid reports he had suggested his mistress get an abortion during a pregnancy scare.

The race drew considerable attention nationally because it became a high-stakes campaign for Trump and it was a possible preview of how the midterm elections could go.

Saccone lost despite frequently comparing himself to the president (“I was Trump before Trump,” he said in one of the campaign’s most oft-quoted remarks) and Trump’s significant personal investment in the campaign.

Lamb said he doesn’t believe the election was a repudiation of the president.

“There are plenty of people here who are still pretty supportive of him,” he told CNN on Wednesday. “His visits, I think they probably did contribute to the turnout that we saw. I was at a lot of polling places (on Election Day) with cars parked outside that had President Trump’s bumper sticker on them. He’s a popular person here.”

Saccone did not respond to a Patch interview request for this story.

During the campaign, much was made out of the fact that Trump won the district by 20 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election. But in politics, 16 months is an eternity in which plenty can change. During the period between the presidential and 18th District elections, Trump’s popularity changed for the worse.

From its zenith of 45 percent the week he took he took office, Trump’s approval rating nationally had slumped to 36 percent by mid-January, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. That was when word broke that the president would become actively involved in the campaign.

Active he was. As Green noted, Trump twice came to Pittsburgh to stump for Saccone, accompanied in the first visit by his daughter, Ivanka. He also heaped praise on Saccone via Twitter.

Vice President Mike Pence was dispatched twice, once for an appearance at a private fundraiser for Saccone, who had notorious difficulty raising money on his own.

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., arrived the day before the election to tour a Washington County candy company with Saccone. Rather than generate buzz for the candidate, though, the visit attracted social media attention mostly because of a photo in which Trump Jr. appeared to be being interviewed by a life-size chocolate rabbit.

Although the Republican Murphy had held the seat since 2003 and didn’t even face a Democratic opponent in 2014 and 2016, the district’s demographics suggest it isn’t rock-solid red as it appears. Registered Democrats hold a 46-41 percent voter registration edge.

That suggests the 18th District isn’t as Republican as it is conservative. Lamb appeared to realize that, taking a conservative stance on many issues while still getting strong support from labor unions.

“(United Steelworkers President) Leo Gerard was at the White House on Wednesday talking about how great the president is on tariffs," Green said. "Then on Sunday, he’s at the union hall rallying the troops to vote against the president’s candidate. That's crazy."

The election was of little governmental significance, as court-ordered redistricting is about to alter Pennsylvania’s congressional district boundaries. The 18th District will be dramatically reconfigured and Lamb already plans to run in the new 17th District.

That’s another reason Green remains convinced the election mostly was a referendum on Trump.

“You had turnouts of more than 40 percent in all four counties in that district,” he said. “That’s a lot of people turning out to be pallbearers for the 18th District.”

Photo: Getty Images.