(The New York Times) “Union leaders insisted that many voters in the district would effectively split their tickets, backing the Democratic Party this year even if they had cast ballots for Mr. Trump in 2016.”


PITTSBURGH — If Conor Lamb scores a stunning upset in the special congressional election on Tuesday deep in Trump country in southwest Pennsylvania, he is clear about who should get the credit.

“You’ve been the heart and soul of this campaign,” Mr. Lamb told a rally of union steelworkers at their Pittsburgh headquarters. He noted that a statue of their union’s first president stands in a Catholic church near his suburban home, because “that’s how we feel about our unions.”

Organized labor has gone all in for Mr. Lamb, the Democratic candidate in the 18th District House race. Union activists have been knocking on members’ doors, standing at the gates of steel mills, and generally trying to claw back votes from 2016, when Hillary Clinton failed to connect with blue-collar voters across the industrial Midwest.

Click to continue reading. By TRIP GABRIEL – Mar 11, 2018.