Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The Democrat candidate claimed a congressional election in a Republican heartland in Pennsylvania, as a vote seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s performance as president remained officially too close to call early on Wednesday.
In an ominous sign for Republicans eight months before national midterm elections, official results with all ballots from voting booths counted showed moderate Democrat Conor Lamb leading conservative Republican Rick Saccone by a fraction of a percentage point.
Trump won the Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District that they are contesting by almost 20 points in the 2016 presidential election.
With TV networks, which often call US elections, yet to predict a winner, officials were continuing to count several hundred absentee ballots to try to determine the result.
Democratic sources said that, once those ballots were included, they expected Lamb to have won the election by more than 400 votes.
“It took a little longer than we thought but we did it. You did it,” Lamb, a US Marines veteran, told cheering supporters late on Tuesday.
Speaking before Lamb claimed victory, Saccone — who has described himself as “Trump before Trump was Trump” — said the contest was not yet over.
“We’re going to fight all the way to the end. You know I never give up,” the 60-year-old state told supporters.
Moderate democrat
The strong showing by Lamb, 33, seems certain to buoy Democrats nationally as they seek to win control of the US.
House of Representatives from Republicans in the November elections.
Republican dominance had been so strong in the district, a patchwork of small towns, farms and Pittsburgh suburbs, that Democrats ran no candidates in the previous two US. House elections here. Lamb’s image as a moderate seemed to have worked in his favour.
Saccone led the race by more than 10 percentage points in January.
But Lamb, a pro-gun Democrat with strong backing from unions, surged in polls as Democratic voters sensed a chance to show their opposition to Trump.
Saccone, a former Air Force counter-intelligence officer, drew criticism toward the end of the campaign by saying that some of his opponents “have a hatred for God.”
The White House arranged a string of visits to energise Saccone supporters. Trump himself held a campaign rally for Saccone last weekend and on Tuesday he again voiced his backing.
Momentum boost
The contest, to replace a Republican who resigned amid a scandal last year, was the latest good election showing for the Democrats, who also won a governor’s race in Virginia and scored a US. Senate upset in conservative Alabama.
The Pennsylvania result will have little bearing on the current balance of power in the House, but Democrats hope a win will boost their momentum as they try to pick up the 24 seats they need to gain control in November.
Of the 85 races currently viewed as competitive, 55 are in congressional districts that Trump won in 2016, according to the University of Virginia Centre for Politics.
Saccone’s poor performance is worrying for Republicans who were sure that tax cuts, the party’s only major legislative achievement under Trump, would be a vote winner this year.
But that sweeping overhaul did little to energise local voters, some of whom dismissed it as a giveaway to the wealthy.
Republicans found it harder than expected to mount effective attacks on Lamb’s positions on abortion, guns and the national Democratic Party.
He has also eschewed the national Democrat brand, saying he would not support House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as speaker.
Lamb says he personally opposes abortion but accepts the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade decision allowing abortion as the law of the land.
Lamb, who hails from a prominent Pennsylvania political family, rarely mentions Trump, focusing on economic issues, health care and protecting Social Security and Medicare.
The photo finish in such a deep red district made clear how much Trump’s standing has fallen since 2016 and gives Democrats increased optimism for November’s midterm elections.
Some voters cast their ballot based on Trump. Outside a polling place in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, Joe Morgan told the Guardian: “I approve of the way the president is trying to put the country in a better spot and I think voting Republican will help him do that.”
In contrast, another voter, Paul Kane, told the Guardian he voted for Lamb because “Trump’s an [expletive]”.
Two counties have yet to count absentee ballots, delaying any final result, but Saccone has so far performed less well with absentee voters than he did with those who cast their ballots on election day.
The vote for Libertarian candidate Drew Miller was larger than the margin between Lamb and Saccone — despite Miller receiving less than 1 per cent of the vote.
Speaking briefly on stage late Tuesday night, Saccone insisted he was “still fighting the fight” and promised a crowd of supporters who had enjoyed an open bar and buffet featuring meatballs and crab dip: “We’re going to fight all the way to the end.”
National Republicans echoed Saccone. In a statement, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee said: “This race is too close to call and we’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted. Once they are, we’re confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress.”
In contrast, Democrats declared victory. Lamb took the stage at his election night party as “Congressman-elect Conor Lamb” and proclaimed to a cheering crowd: “It took a little longer than we thought, but we got there.”
In a press release sent out earlier in the evening, Ben Ray Lujan, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, pre-emptively congratulated Lamb on his “incredible victory” and insisted: “These results should terrify Republicans.”
Lamb had actively attempted to distance himself from national Democrats. He recorded a television ad where he made clear he would not support Nancy Pelosi for Democratic leader in the House and had only a handful of national Democrats stump on his behalf. All of them were white men.
