United States | Pennsylvania’s special election

Wham, bam, thank you Lamb

Conor Lamb has shown Democrats how to win in places they usually lose

Marine won
|PITTSBURGH
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IF DEMOCRATS could repeat Conor Lamb’s extraordinary result in Pennsylvania when the mid-terms roll round, they would win enough seats in Congress to override a presidential veto. The former marine and federal prosecutor won a district that President Donald Trump took by almost 20 percentage points, the electoral equivalent of defying gravity. Democrats can now look forward to special elections in Arizona’s 8th district (which Mr Trump won by 21 points) and Ohio’s 12th district (which Mr Trump won by 11 points) with relish. Yet one thing that helped tip the vote in Mr Lamb’s favour, albeit by a fraction of a percent, will be hard to repeat.

Rick Saccone was not as bad a candidate as Roy Moore, an alleged sex offender whose failed Senate run in Alabama dealt the Republican party its last electoral humiliation on this scale, but he was dire nonetheless. Republicans almost picked a better candidate, too. After Tim Murphy, a vocal opponent of abortion, was compelled to resign after revelations that he encouraged his mistress to have an abortion when she thought she was pregnant, both parties picked their candidates for the newly vacant House seat through a party committee. Guy Reschenthaler, a 34-year-old state senator and ex-serviceman, was expected to get the Republican nomination. But on the second ballot one of the three front-runners, Kim Ward, another state senator, threw her support behind Mr Saccone, who subsequently won handily. Mr Reschenthaler could have matched Mr Lamb in youth and energy, and outdone him on legislative experience.

As Mr Lamb’s campaign gained momentum, out-of-state Republican groups came to Mr Saccone’s aid, funnelling as much as $10m into his campaign. The Congressional Leadership Fund hired 50 knockers-on-doors through a private contractor. But Mr Saccone, a state legislator who claims to have been a diplomat in North Korea, has all the charisma of a phone directory. He showed up late for door-knocking and seemed ill at ease at public gatherings. His idea of a social-media campaign was to post a video on Facebook of himself at a Christmas party at a bar in Moon Township, rambling about the wings, pizza and zucchini on offer.

Mr Trump travelled to Pennsylvania twice to prop up Mr Saccone. During a 75-minute freewheeling speech on March 10th he talked about himself, insulted several adversaries and mentioned Mr Saccone only in passing. (“Personally, I like Rick Saccone. I think he’s handsome.”) As his polling lead disappeared Mr Saccone grew more strident. Appearing next to Donald Trump junior, the president’s son, on the eve of the election, he claimed that “the other side” hated the president and the country. “And I tell you some more,” he said. “They have a hatred for God.”

Though every race looks unique if you stare at it for long enough, there are broad lessons for Democrats from Mr Lamb’s success. Voters in rural and suburban areas like centrist candidates with military records who talk about pensions, health insurance and gun rights. With his clean-cut looks, Mr Lamb, a practising Catholic, was at times mistaken for a Jehovah’s Witness. He was careful not to make the vote a referendum on Mr Trump, who is still fairly popular in the district. And he was a strong fund-raiser, outdoing his opponent by a margin of four to one with a haul of $4m.

Mr Lamb’s other great strength was energetic support from the unions. Around 86,000 union members live in the 18th district. Labour leaders say one in five district votes comes from a union household. Many of them voted for Mr Trump, who did 13 points better in the district’s union households than Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012. They used to vote for Mr Murphy, who had moderate views on organised labour and was endorsed by several unions. Mr Saccone fell out with union leaders. He is a fervent backer of right-to-work legislation, which prevents unions from requiring workers, members or not, to pay union dues. This weakens them financially and politically.

Mr Lamb spent the final days of his campaign at rallies with unions. On March 9th he was with steelworkers in Pittsburgh (he embraces the proposed tariffs on imports of steel). On March 11th he joined coalminers at a United Mine Workers rally in Greene County, which Mr Trump won by a whopping 40%. Mr Lamb promised to protect pensions of union members as well as Social Security and Medicare benefits for all. “We are ready to step up and keep the promises that we made,” he said. Union members responded with a fervour they never showed for Hillary Clinton. Mr Lamb was “a God-fearing, union-supporting, gun-owning, job-protecting, pension-defending, Social-Security-believing …sending-drug-dealers-to-jail Democrat,” enthused Cecil Roberts, the union boss. The Democrats need more like him.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Wham, bam, thank you Lamb"

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