The Story:
On March 6, the voters of Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional district, by a very slim margin, elected Conor Lamb, a Democrat, as their new representative in the House. Lamb, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Pittsburgh office, is considered a moderate within his party.
The Background:
The district’s former representative, Tim Murphy (R), who has long been outspoken against abortion, resigned in October 2017 after the revelation that he had asked his mistress to procure an abortion. That is why a special election was necessary.
The Trump administration and its allies put a lot of effort into keeping this seat Republican, which would have entailed winning it for Rick Saccone. That effort included a visit by the President, who offered Saccone his enthusiastic endorsement the Saturday before the vote.
The Thing to Know:
The fact that Lamb defeated Saccone in a district that voted heavily for Trump in November 2016 has sparked hopes in some of President Trump’s opponents that he will be on the losing side of a ‘blue wave’ this November.
