In Pennsylvania, Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb is looking to punch his ticket out of the Senate primary and into the general election later this year. But Lamb is trailing substantially in the polls despite having support from major party organizations and throngs of elected Democrats.
He will need to overcome a wide lead held by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. According to the latest average poll by RealClearPolitics, Lamb lags behind Fetterman by 31 points.
If Lamb manages to clear the primary, he will face the winner of the GOP Senate primary sought by Trump-endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and to millionaire former hedge fund manager.
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Who is Conor Lamb?
Lamb has represented Pennsylvania’s 17th district (formerly the 18th district before it was redrawn) in the House of Representatives since he won a special election in early 2018. He won re-election later that year and again in 2020 after a tight contest with a Republican challenger.
His congressional election victories over Republicans have been a selling point for Lamb. One campaign ad claims he “defeated the Trump machine three elections in a row.”
A former Marine, Lambserves on the House Veteran Affairs Committee. Before Congress, Lamb, a University of Pennsylvania Law School graduatedworked as an assistant attorney in the final years of former President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, where he prosecuted cases involving illegal firearms and drug trafficking, according to his Congressional biography.
How old is Conor Lamb?
Lamb is 37 years old and I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
What is Conor Lamb’s policy platform?
Lamb’s campaign site identifies over a dozen issue areas.
They include enacting filibuster reform, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, transitioning to clean energy, restricting corporate election spending and enacting criminal justice reform.
His healthcare proposals call for expanding the Affordable Care Act and dropping the Medicare eligibility age to 60.
To supporters, much of Lamb’s appeal is in his congressional experience. None of his opponents of him in the Democratic primary have held office in Washington.
Part of Lamb’s campaign promise is to vote for the bills that he helped pass in the House but floundered in the Senate, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For The People Act.
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Who has endorsed Conor Lamb?
Lamb’s major endorsements come from the Philadelphia Democratic Partythe Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board and several union organizations.
The Inquirersaid in its endorsement that it backed Lamb because in 2018 “he flipped a Republican-held seat in a district that favored Trump in 2016 by nearly 20 points.”
www.usatoday.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism