In early August Republican Troy Balderson struggled to beat Democrat Danny O'Connor in a House special election. The votes are still being counted but it's considered mathematically impossible to O'Connor to win. This is a seat that has been Republican since 1982 and that President Trump carried by a wide margin. Because it was such a tight race, many are pointing to it as an early indication of a blue wave. No one seems to be aware of the campaigns themselves. As someone who actually lives (and voted) in this district I have a few insights that others have missed.
The big one is that O'Connor wasn't running as a Democrat. He was running as a moderate. In his first ad he said that both parties needed new leadership. Later, when the race turned mean, he moved on to promising to save Social Security and accusing his opponent of wanting to cut business taxes too much at the cost of Social Security. Nothing was said about open borders, $15/hour minimum wage, single-payer health care or impeaching President Trump. Certainly nothing was said about socialism, democratic or otherwise. O'Connor started the race with a big lead which took a major hit when he admitted that, yes, he would support Nancy Pelosi if she was the Democratic candidate for speaker.
While it's true that O'Connor was running in a district that's half rural, he was not an outlier. Sherrod Brown is usually considered one of the furthest left members of the Senate but he, too, is running ads about bi-partisan cooperation. So is Joyce Beatty who is in a much more urban district.
Here we are in an election in which anger toward Trump is supposed to produce a blue wave and the President is a no-show. Possibly in Cleveland someone is promising to be part of the Resistance but no one in Columbus is. Instead the Democrats are sounding like Bill Clinton moderates rather than the neo-socialists elsewhere.
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