Conor Lamb May Be Setting A Winning Strategy For Democrats In Swing Districts

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:46 pm

According to his stated positions the Democratic candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 18th district sounds like a moderate, yet traditional, Democrat.

He says he is for the following things:

1. taking immediate action to fight the heroin crisis,
2. creating and protecting good jobs,
3. making health care more affordable,
4. protecting Medicare and Social Security, and
5. reforming our broken student loan system.

None of these positions would make people say that Lamb is a wild-eyed liberal Democrat.  They all seem reasonable to the average voter.

And this is exactly what Lamb is going for as he hopes to win a seat for Congress in a district that Trump won by 20 percentage points.  He has even said he would not support Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

One particular issue that seems to set Lamb apart from the national Democratic Party is Medicare. Not just the current Medicare program but the proposed expanded Medicare program which has been proposed in Congress.

Instead of supporting any of the current bills in Congress such as Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” Lamb is pointing out that the Republicans in Congress led by Paul Ryan actually want to cut back on the Medicare program we have now. This is a program relied upon by the nation’s elderly and disabled populations, and it has been shown to be the most popular of all government programs.

As a result, Lamb has been using this tried-and-true Democratic Party wedge issue in his campaign to flip a red congressional seat to the Democratic column.  In his stump speeches he has been citing $1.5 trillion in “entitlement” cuts which both Ryan and Trump have proposed in their Republican budget.

“These cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, they are no longer just chapters in Paul Ryan’s book. They are there in black and white in actual bills that are sitting in the U.S. Congress that are awaiting a vote,” Lamb has told his campaign audiences. “We know the next attack on these so-called entitlements will be on Social Security.”

This seems to be a winning formula for Lamb, and one that might be used to good effect in other swing congressional districts around the country.

Former vice president Joe Biden recently went to the district to help the photogenic 33 year-old former Marine. Biden said Lamb is  “a champion for workers” and that he would protect labor unions and “fight against cuts to Social Security and Medicare” funding.

If union members come out in strength to vote for Lamb we may well be experiencing the start of a sea change in American politics.  This would mean that Lamb’s message would be what is needed for Democrats to win back the voters who left them decades ago as “Reagan Democrats.”

This young and inexperienced candidate may be setting a winning agenda for the national Democratic Party without even realizing it.  The results in tomorrow’s special election in Pennsylvania will be closely analyzed regardless of the outcome.

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.

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