Republicans are hoping that distaste for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will once again help them defend a congressional seat — this time in western Pennsylvania, where the party and allied super PACs are warning voters that Democrat Conor Lamb’s opposition to the Trump tax cuts shows he will join the Californian’s “liberal flock.”
Mr. Lamb has tried to inoculate himself from the line of attack by saying Mrs. Pelosi should leave her post as minority leader in the House and by telling voters he disagreed with party leaders that lined up against efforts to end the government shutdown.
Republicans, though, are confident the line of attack will stick — particularly after Mr. Lamb aligned himself with Mrs. Pelosi on the federal tax code rewrite — and bolster GOP state Rep. Rick Saccone, who backed the cuts, ahead of the March 13 special election in the 18th Congressional District.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a group aligned with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, rehashed the Pelosi line of attack Wednesday in a new television ad that started running a day after the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, delivered the same message in a separate ad.
“How do we know Conor Lamb will join Pelosi’s liberal flock?” the narrator asks in the CLF spot released Wednesday that once again pokes fun at the Democrat’s last name. “He already has. Lamb joined Pelosi to oppose a middle-class tax cut.”
“Conor Lamb: A Pelosi-following, high-taxing, big-spending liberal,” the ad says over footage of a lamb chomping on some hay.
“We deserve better,” the CLF ads says. “Veteran Rick Saccone supported your tax cut.”
Mr. Lamb has been fundraising off the attacks, casting himself as the candidate that is trying to “beat back the dark money” in the race, and as the “only real leaders in this race.”
“There’s a reason Paul Ryan is spending so much money to try and stop us: He sees what we’re doing & it’s making him very, very nervous,” Mr. Lamb said on Twitter this month. “Donate right now & show him we’re just getting started.”
The winner of the race will replace Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a pro-life congressman who left Congress amid reports that he was accused of asking a woman he had an affair with to have an abortion.
The 18th Congressional District runs from the suburbs south of Pittsburgh to the southwest corner of the state and has been a GOP stronghold.
The race will serve as another barometer for the popularity of President Trump, who hailed the tax cut package a rally in the district this month.
Vice President Mike Pence is expected to parachute into the district — providing more evidence that the GOP is taking nothing for granted and hoping to avoid what likely would be viewed as an embarrassing loss.
Mrs. Pelosi has been a mainstay of the messaging from CLF, which is credited with helping the GOP defend seats in Georgia and Montana last year after linking the Democratic candidates to Mrs. Pelosi.
“Nancy Pelosi is the most toxic elected official in the country,” said Corry Bliss, the group’s executive director.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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