Health care was the top issue for Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district voters, who seemingly elected Democrat Conor Lamb over Republican Rick Saccone in a dramatically close special election on Tuesday, Public Policy Polling found. Fifty-two percent of voters said health care was a top issue in their decision and "among voters who said health care was the most important issue for them, Lamb beat Rick Saccone 64-36, and among a broader group of voters who said it was either the most important or a very important issue, Lamb beat Saccone 62-38," PPP writes.
The heavily Republican PA-18, which President Trump won by 20 points in 2016, additionally disapproved of the GOP's efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act by a margin of 14 points, 53 percent to 39 percent. Almost half of voters, 48 percent, believe "Republicans are now trying to undermine and sabotage [the Affordable Care Act] since they failed to repeal it," and over half, 59 percent, believe the ACA should be kept in place following certain fixes. Just 38 percent believe a full repeal is the best decision.
The Pennsylvania race is being viewed as a bellwether for the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats are hoping to flip the House. Topher Spiro, the vice president for health policy at the liberal-leaning American Progress, reacted to PPP's poll by tweeting: "BOOM. This is it. Any vulnerable Republican who voted to repeal health care is toast."
The PPP poll reached 567 PA-18 voters on election day, March 13. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percent. Read the full results here.