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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOH-12 special election: Danny O'Connor may be turning red voters blue.
Danny OConnor is trying to do what hasnt been done in nearly 40 years: persuade voters in Ohios 12th Congressional District to send a Democrat to Washington.
The district has been deep red since Gov. John Kasich was elected in 1982. Ironically, OConnor is hoping voters current favor for Kasich, still a popular Republican, can carry him to victory in what has become an increasingly important special election, the last of several before the November midterms.
The young Franklin County recorder the only elected office he has held is banking on flipping moderate Republicans who support Kasich, but might have voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. He says voters want leadership in Congress that will hold the administration accountable and check the presidents power.
The district voted Trump into office by a margin of more than 11 points, but OConnor says his message of expanding health coverage and educational opportunities to promote job growth can connect with Trump voters. He seldom fails to mention that his fiancee is a Republican.
With less national money pouring in than his counterpart, Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson, OConnor is walking the streets and knocking on doors promoting his message himself.
OConnor frequently has used Kasichs common sense gun initiatives as talking points, such as limiting assault weapons and bump stocks and promoting red flag legislation that could temporarily take guns from the mentally ill or domestic abusers.
Tami Halliday, a mother of two teenage daughters who lives in suburban New Albany, voted for Trump in 2016 and considers herself a Republican along with her husband. But she said she is concerned about her daughters safety in school.
I am a Republican, but I really feel like I need to find a candidate who is strongly against assault rifles, she said to OConnor as he stood on her porch, asking for her vote. I am OK with having a gun for hunting, but its this other stuff that has got to stop. I dont know much about the other candidates, but that (gun legislation) is going to be my deciding factor.
OConnor happily touted his F rating from the NRA and told her he does not take campaign money from the group. That was enough to persuade Halliday to vote for him. Halliday represents what OConnors campaign hopes is a growing electorate discontent with the Republican Party since Trump took office.
To win, OConnor will need voters such as Halliday to show up in the middle of the summer for a special election that isnt yet garnering the same national attention as did others in Georgia and Pennsylvania earlier in the year although both the New York Times and Washington Post did stories on the race in the past week.
The Democrat has focused a lot of his time and energy on Delaware County, a GOP area in the heart of the district that he must do well in to have a chance of winning.
In an ad earlier this month, OConnor had a female voter from Delaware County who supported Kasich and Trump but said she would be voting for OConnor.
Dan Morrison, a retired public school teacher who lives near downtown Delaware, thinks people in his area himself included are frustrated enough with the current direction of the country that they are willing to vote a moderate Democrat like OConnor into Congress regardless of their voting history.
If Balderson were going around and saying I have a deep respect for John McCain and what he believes, that would be different ... but we know he supports the Trump agenda and is riding his coattails, said Morrison, who will be voting for OConnor in the special election but does not consider himself a down-ticket Democrat. If Kasich were running for the representative of this district, I would take a serious look at him.
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180722/ohios-12th-district-special-election-democrat-danny-oconnor-hoping-he-can-break-republican-hold-on-district
Salviati
(6,008 posts)beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)RandySF
(59,158 posts)But the DCCC just jumped in with over $200k, so it might be closer.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,817 posts)The drugs are an even bigger worry than the guns.
RandySF
(59,158 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,817 posts)JI7
(89,262 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,817 posts)It is actually quite equally an issue in affluent areas as in poorer areas.
Other drugs, such as meth, align somewhat more along economic strata, but even they are very much in affluent areas.
JI7
(89,262 posts)it's easier to cover up also. and there is probably more shame associated with it.
in poorer areas it's more open just because people have little else to do, or places to go. with lack of jobs and money it's easier to point to as a problem.
calguy
(5,324 posts)I tend to watch MSNBC a lot, enjoy the prigraming, but it seems like anti trump, all the time. Anti trump is fine to a point, but I'd really like to see some pro democrats in the story mix. Give people more of a reason to vote Democratic instead of vote anti republican. I think Tom Perez could do a much better job in this regard.