Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Pennsylvania House Race Rattles GOP

A Democrat's surge in a special election next Tuesday has the White House fretting about November.

March 6, 2018 at 1:00 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Surging.
Photographer: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

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It’s easy to hype the significance of special congressional elections, but the one next Tuesday in western Pennsylvania has really become a big deal.

A young Democrat’s recent surge in the polls gives President Donald Trump just a week to head off a panic in his Republican party and validate his dubious claim that big tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are political winners. A Republican loss in a Trump-friendly district would be a huge blow in an already bad period for the White House.