Tag: Mansfield, Ohio

A traditionally Republican district of Ohio that has only elected a Democrat once since the Roosevelt Administration is seen as a tossup in Tuesday’s special election – the latest in a series of once-safe seats the party has been forced to defend ahead of November’s midterms. The race for Ohio’s Twelfth Congressional District, which is a dead heat in public polling, pits Republican Troy Balderson, a state senator from the rural eastern edge of the district, against Democrat Danny O’Connor, who is an elected official in Franklin County, which is the largest county in the state. The event was not advertised to the national media, which was deliberate. In contrast, at an event in a crowded campaign office on Monday afternoon, O’Connor hailed the grassroots volunteers who would be knocking on doors from him. Despite O’Connor’s insistence that he would not support Pelosi, Republicans have long used the unpopular Democratic leader as an attack line. CLF has spent over $2.7m on television advertising alone in the race and has knocked over 500,000 doors in the district In a statement, Courtney Alexander, the group’s press secretary, said: “Danny O’Connor has spent the entire campaign lying about his support for Nancy Pelosi and her extreme, liberal agenda. Ohio families deserve a leader like Troy Balderson who will put Ohio families first, not Nancy Pelosi.” ‘It’s pretty lonely out here’: why John Kasich is willing to criticize Trump Read more While Pelosi has proved a flashpoint in the district, so has President Donald Trump. The statement caused the traditionally conservative Columbus Dispatch to endorse O’Connor and kept Kasich, the popular never-Trump governor, on the sidelines. Republicans are clinging to a 23-seat majority and the fact that they are on the defense in such a traditionally conservative seat is an bad omen, even if Balderson pulls out a victory. As Kasich said in his interview Sunday, the tight race “really doesn’t bode well for the Republican Party because this should be -- shouldn’t even be contested.”