The New York Times has a must-read piece profiling Danny O’Connor’s (D. OH-12) relentless race to flip outgoing-Rep. Pat Tiberi’s (R. OH-12) seat in the upcoming special election on August 7th. This race is very similar to the Pennsylvania special election where Conor Lamb (D. PA-18) won the seat in a heavily pro-Trump district. Democrats are looking to repeat that success in Ohio. Republicans have been running scared, pouring in a ton of money to help their candidate, Troy Balderson (R. OH-12), avoid an embarrassing defeat. But O’Connor is proving to be a tireless campaigner and proving that going door-to-door to every voters’ house is still an effective way to get out the vote:
There was a pitiable chance of success when Danny O’Connor knocked on Tami Halliday’s door Thursday morning to ask for her vote. All the data showed that Mr. O’Connor, a Democrat running in an August special election for a House seat here, was all but wasting his time.
But when Ms. Halliday asked him his stance on gun control, things got brighter fast. Mr. O’Connor said he favored an assault weapons ban, along with preventing people with domestic violence records and mental illness issues from having guns. “Do you take money from the N.R.A.?” she asked. “No,” Mr. O’Connor replied. “I have an ‘F’ rating from the N.R.A.”
With that, Ms. Halliday, who voted for President Trump in 2016, said she would vote for Mr. O’Connor.
The special election in a region that stretches from the affluent suburbs of Columbus to the Appalachian foothills east of Zanesville could be the next big test of the vaunted “blue wave” brewing for November. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race a tossup.
And the NYT highlights how this will pay off for O’Connor:
The New Albany area, with its affluence and concentration of college-educated voters, represents the kind of area where Democrats must do well in the midterm elections if they are to recapture the House. The suburbs north of Columbus are pulsating with growth and prosperity.
Door-knocking, on one level, is an inherently inefficient way to campaign. But the way Mr. O’Connor assessed it, if he had won over Ms. Halliday, who said her views on gun control stemmed from her desire to protect her two daughters, then she may well talk to her friends and post something on Facebook — and, if he is fortunate, he will have 10 new votes instead of one.
O’Connor is putting in the hard work to win this race and he needs our support big time to pull this off. Click here to donate and get involved with O’Connor’s campaign.