A Democrat has a good shot at winning in a special election Tuesday in an Ohio congressional district surrounding Columbus that hasn’t elected a Democrat since the 1980s.
Live results for the Ohio 12th special election
Danny O’Connor vs. Troy Balderson in 2018’s next big special House election.
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Danny O’Connor is running against Republican Troy Balderson to replace retiring Rep. Patrick Tiberi in Ohio’s wealthiest congressional district. So far, polling had the race in a dead heat, and Donald Trump was campaigning for Balderson the weekend before the special election, in a sign of GOP concerns about the race.
Polls close at 7:30 pm ET. Live results, powered by Decision Desk, are below.
Ohio 12th Congressional District, special election: Democrats try to break a 30-year losing streak
This district, covering parts of suburban Columbus as well as more rural areas in Appalachia, always sends a Republican to Congress. Trump won the district by 9 points in 2016. Cook ranks it as R+7.
But this district is a little better educated than Ohio as a whole, which might favor Democrats, and O’Connor has positioned himself to have a fighting chance. Recent polls have found him trailing by just a point or two, and the Democratic campaign feels good about the early voting numbers they’ve seen.
Given the overall environment, and Democratic performances in prior special elections, election forecasters like Cook have rated the 12th special election as a toss-up.
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