The Atlantic

Conor Lamb Chips Away at Trump's Coalition

His strong showing in Pennsylvania suggests Republicans could face a stiffer challenge than they expected in at least some blue-collar districts where the president is relatively popular.
Source: Brendan McDermid / Reuters

The Republicans’ last sea wall against a Democratic wave in November visibly cracked, but did not entirely crumble, in Tuesday’s special election for a House seat in Pennsylvania.

For all of the gains Democrats have posted in elections held since Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, until this week they had failed to demonstrate progress on one critical front: regaining ground with the white working-class voters at the core of the president’s coalition.

Democrat Conor Lamb’s apparent victory—pending final counting—over Republican Rick Saccone in a preponderantly white, heavily blue-collar House district outside Pittsburgh showed that even

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