The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) launched a 30 second television spot on Tuesday blasting Conor Lamb, the Democrat candidate in the special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, for opposing middle class tax cuts and standing with House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
The spot supports the Republican candidate, Rick Saccone.
The special election in this suburban Pittsburgh Congressional District will be held on March 13, and was called after the incumbent, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) resigned in October “following reports that he encouraged a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair to have an abortion,” Ballotpedia reported.
Lamb (pictured), the Democratic nominee, is a former assistant U.S. attorney who served in the U.S. Marines. Saccone, the Republican nominee, is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a former political science professor at St. Vincent College, and a former counterintelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Though Donald Trump easily won the district in 2016, Democrats are hopeful of an upset.
“[T]he Republican Party has launched a massive campaign to save a House seat here in the heart of Trump country. A loss in the March 13 contest — coming just months after the party’s embarrassing defeat in the Alabama Senate race — would portend a potential blowout in the November midterms,” Politico reported on Monday.
To date, Lamb has raised more money than Saccone. As of December 31, Lamb had raised $560,000 and Saccone had raised $214,000, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
But Republicans are working to change the dynamics of the race, financial and otherwise, as Politico reported:
Nearly every corner of the GOP is involved. The White House is working closely with Saccone and dispatching President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to the suburban Pittsburgh district on his behalf. The House Republican campaign arm has begun a $2 million TV offensive and is aggressively pressing party lawmakers to help fund the candidate. Bliss’ group, Congressional Leadership Fund, is deploying dozens of field staffers, who braved frigid winds last weekend as they canvassed for votes.
By the end of the weekend, Republicans were outspending Democrats on TV by a ratio of nearly 5-to-1. The GOP push will only intensify: The Republican National Committee is set to invest about $1 million, much of it on digital, field and other get-out-the-vote activities.
The only poll of the race listed in the Real Clear Politics Average of Polls was conducted by Gravis Marketing between January 3 and 5 and shows Saccone with a 12 point lead, 46 percent to 34 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4.3 percent.
The Cook Political Report currently lists the race as “Lean Republican.”
If Democrats hope to persuade the rest of the country that there is substance behind the “Blue Wave” hype and they are well positioned to win the 24 seats they need in the midterm elections to regain the majority in the House of Representatives, they will need to win this special election on March 13.
You can watch the ad, “Changing Lives” here:
You can read the transcript of the new ad here:
Narrator: Nancy Pelosi is calling your tax cuts “crumbs” and “pathetic.”
Conor Lamb sounds just like her.
They’re even using the same crummy words [two screen shots flash on the screen, one saying “betrayal of the American middle class,” the other saying “betrayal of the middle class.”
They just don’t get that the tax cuts are changing lives.
Rick Saccone supports tax reform because what liberals call crumbs are actually filling bellies, buying shoes that fit, making dreams affordable.
And Saccone will keep fighting because that extra money will make life a whole lot easier.
“We told you that Nancy Pelosi’s out-of-touch and elitist comments would resound throughout 2018,” NRCC Communications Director Matt Gorman said in a statement accompanying the release of the ad.
“Pelosi, the San Francisco multi-millionaire, and Conor Lamb both oppose tax relief for the middle class and think higher wages are simply ‘pathetic.’” Gorman added.
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