Donald Trump kicked off Wednesday morning by congratulating himself—and, as an afterthought, Republican candidate Troy Balderson—on the as-yet-uncalled special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District. With around 8,400 provisional and absentee votes left to be counted, Balderson leads by less than one percentage point. That’s despite Donald Trump having won the district by 11 points in 2016, while the House seat’s former occupant, Rep. Pat Tiberi, won by 36 points. But despite the razor-thin margin, Trump declared victory … for himself.
As always, it’s all about Trump. Here, he’s claiming credit for a dubious victory—even if we assume Balderson’s lead holds up (as is likely), this is a deep red district, Republicans spent giant piles of money to hold it and only barely did so. Probably. But most importantly, there are 71 seats that Trump won in 2016 by narrower margins than this district. That has to terrify Republicans, even if Trump is busy congratulating himself. And, 19 minutes later, Troy Balderson.