GOP efforts to kill ObamaCare might have tipped the scales for Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania's special election
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."
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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.
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