NEWARK, Ohio — President Trump held a rally in central Ohio Saturday to shore up support for a Republican House candidate who has struggled to raise money and is failing to motivate GOP voters.
The Tuesday special election between Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O’Connor offers a preview of dozens of midterm races across the country: a reliably Republican district that harbors a supercharged Democratic base and a core of suburban voters who polls show are frustrated with the president’s leadership.
The Republic candidate in the House special election Tuesday, Troy Balderson, told the Columbus Dispatch he couldn’t name an issue on which he disagreed with Trump, prompting the paper’s conservative editorial page — which hadn’t backed a Democrat for president for 100 years before the 2016 election — to endorse Democratic rival Danny O’Connor.Both sides now view the contest, the last special election before November, as a final check on party enthusiasm, with each party claiming that the result here next week will send a signal of what is to come in November’s general elections.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the special election as a toss-up.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
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