With the House special election for Ohio’s 12th District still too close to call, Democratic nominee Danny O’Connor made the cable news rounds on Wednesday morning, vowing to campaign “every single day until November” and criticizing his opponent for flying people –like President Trump — in from D.C. to help with his campaign.
In an interview with CNN, O’Connor said the President didn’t know what he was talking about during his visit to Ohio to rally for Republican Troy Balderson, despite Trump winning the district by 11 points. Trump is also wildly popular among rural voters in Ohio — a demographic O’Connor has struggled to entice.
“I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about, you can fly in, hang out here for a couple of hours, fly out,” he said. “You don’t walk on our roads, you don’t have kids that go to our schools, you don’t deal with the public health crisis with addiction that we have here in our state every single day. I think it’s more important to have grass roots conversations and Troy Balderson can have all the people he wants fly in from D.C., I don’t think it makes too much of a difference.”
Balderson has declared victory in the 12th District, but the vote margin may be close enough to trigger a recount.
O'Connor: No matter how many people my opponent flies in from D.C., it won't "make a difference" pic.twitter.com/NC7kGFxzal
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 8, 2018