Conor Lamb

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Conor Lamb (2018)

Conor James Lamb (born June 27, 1984 in Washington, DC ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . The former prosecutor and Marine won the by-election in the 18th Congressional District of the State of Pennsylvania for the United States House of Representatives in March 2018 and has been a member of Congress since April 2018. In the election in November 2018 , he won in the newly formed 17th district against the mandate holder Keith Rothfus . Lamb, who is considered a rather conservative Democrat, has represented the western area of Pittsburgh since then .

Family, education and work

Conor Lamb is the son of Katie and Thomas F. Lamb, Jr. Born in Washington, DC, Lamb grew up in the southern suburb of Pittsburgh , in Mount Lebanon Township ( Allegheny County ). His grandfather, Thomas F. Lamb, was President of the Pennsylvania Senate , and his uncle, Michael Lamb, is the City Controller of Pittsburgh. Conor Lamb graduated from Catholic High School in 2002 and studied at the University of Pennsylvania , where he received a BA in Political Science in 2006 and a Juris Doctor in 2009 Law School . He then became a recruit to the Marines and served for them in the internal military law enforcement in Okinawa , Japan . After leaving the service in 2013, he remained a reservist. In 2013/2014 he worked as a legal assistant (clerk) to federal judge Joseph Frank Bianco in the eastern borough of New York . From October 2014 he worked as Assistant US Attorney for Pittsburgh. There he devoted himself mainly to the fight against drug crime.

Political career

After the former Pennsylvania 18th Congressional District MP, Republican Tim Murphy , announced his resignation on October 5, 2017, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Lamb was considering running. He was named her candidate for the extraordinary by-election at a Democratic nomination convention on November 19, 2017. This by-election was scheduled for March 13, 2018 to fill the remaining months of Murphy's remaining mandate - which runs until January 3, 2019. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in February 2018 that the previous congressional constituencies of the state unfairly favor the Republicans ( gerrymandering ), the constituency will then be dissolved and in the upcoming election in November 2018 already elected within other boundaries, so that the winner of the by-election a few months in completely redesigned electoral district boundaries.

Borders of the 18th congressional electoral district from 2013 to 2018

The 18th congressional electoral district of Pennsylvania includes the southern suburbs of Pittsburgh (southern edge of Allegheny County ) and the more rural southwest of the state, which belongs to the Appalachian Plateau and the industrial region of the Rust Belt and was long characterized by coal mining and steel production. Trade unions play an important role in this area, which has been severely affected by structural change after many former industrial workers and after plant and mine closings. After the Democrats had previously had one of their strongholds here and two thirds of the voters were still registered as Democrats, the electoral district had for years a clear basic tendency towards the Republicans. For example, the former member of the district Tim Murphy in the US House of Representatives has won every election since his first election in 2002 by at least 15 percentage points; In 2014 and 2016 , the Democrats did not run a candidate against Murphy. The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won here in 2016 by around 20 percentage points. The Cook Partisan Voting Index puts the Republican character of the congressional electoral district at R + 11.

Lamb's Republican opponent was the far-right former State MP Rick Saccone, who once referred to himself as "Trump before Trump existed". With polls showing a surprisingly close race between favorite Saccone and Lamb, the Republican National Committee put in over $ 10 million in grants, including $ 8 million for television advertising, which doubled Lamb's spending. In addition, many politicians from the federal level appeared in this election campaign; on Lamb's side, former Vice President Joe Biden ; on Saccone's side, Vice President Mike Pence , several ministers, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump . Shortly before the election, President Donald Trump also held two campaign events for Saccone. The electorate of this district is particularly typical of the politically disappointed, socially rather conservative former workers who helped Trump to victory in 2016, which is why the decision was also considered a test election for the popularity of the president himself.

After the votes cast on election day had resulted in Lamb's lead of 641 votes, the postal votes were counted on the following day. NBC News declared Lamb the winner on March 14; many other media followed when Lamb's lead after counting almost all of the votes was 627 votes, 0.2 percentage points. The election - after the lost Senate election in Alabama in December 2017 - was also seen internationally as a test of mood for President Trump and Lamb's victory as a bad sign for him and Trumpism in the upcoming elections in November 2018 . On March 20, his opponent Saccone admitted defeat. On April 2, the result of the recount was a lead of 755 votes for Lamb (114,102 to 113,347); on April 12, 2018 Lamb was the Speaker of the House , Paul Ryan , sworn and taken in the Congress.

Borders of the 17th congressional electoral district as of 2018

Lamb ran in the November 2018 election in the newly tailored 17th congressional electoral district of Pennsylvania, which, in addition to the southern suburbs of Pittsburg - where Lamb also lives - covers a completely different part of western Pennsylvania than Lamb's previous constituency and which is largely the previous 12th congressional electoral district corresponds. Erin McClelland, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democrats in the 12th district against Republican mandate holder Keith Rothfus in 2014 and 2016 , withdrew her candidacy after Lamb's announcement, so that Lamb was unopposed in the primary election on May 15 for the main election in November Democratic candidate against Rothfus was chosen. In a July 2018 survey by Monmouth University , Lamb was clearly ahead of Rothfus. Lamb was more popular than Rothfus in the new district, while President Trump had negative approval ratings there with 44 to 51 percent. Political observers classified the race as open, with some seeing advantages for Lamb in July 2018.

In the 2018 election, Lamb got 56.2 percent of the vote, beating Rothfus, who received 43.8 percent. As of January 3, 2019, Lamb has represented Pennsylvania's new 17th Congressional constituency in Congress.

Positions

Conor Lamb represents rather conservative, centrist positions within the Democratic Party , especially in social politics ( Blue Dog Democrat ). He has spoken out against further restrictions on the possession of firearms and, as a Catholic, personally rejects abortion ( Pro-Life ), but advocates maintaining the existing legal position permitting abortions ( Roe v. Wade ). During the election campaign, he made it clear that he agreed to inspections of arms buyers, which so far has not found a majority in Congress. Lamb has announced that he wants to work with the Trump administration and that if there is a Democratic majority, Nancy Pelosi will not be elected as possible Speaker of the House from January 2019 .

In particular, Lamb advocates jobs and combating the opiate crisis. In terms of social policy, he stands for the maintenance of the social security system and for a strong role for the trade unions, which largely supported him in his election campaign. In order to get Obamacare , he advocates its non-partisan stabilization. He supported President Trump's controversial protectionist decision of March 2018 to impose high punitive tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum.

Web links

Commons : Conor Lamb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ^ Nash Jenkins: Meet Conor Lamb, the Democrat Who Could Pull Off an Upset in Pennsylvania's Special Election. In: Time , March 12, 2018; Meet Conor Lamb, Pennsylvania's 18th District candidate. In: ConorLamb.com.
  2. ↑ Chris Potter: Tim Murphy's departure brings many would-be replacements, as well as a ray of hope for Democrats. In: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , October 5, 2017.
  3. ^ Conor Lamb Wins First-Ever Congressional Democratic Convention. In: PADems.com , November 19, 2017.
  4. ^ Nate Cohn, Matthew Bloch, Kevin Quealy: The New Pennsylvania House Districts Are In. We Review the Mapmakers' Choices. In: The New York Times , February 19, 2018 (English).
  5. ^ Ella Nilsen: It's official: Democrat Conor Lamb wins Pennsylvania special election in major upset. In: Vox.com , March 14, 2018.
  6. ^ Adam Kelsey, Erica Y. King: Meet Conor Lamb, the Democrat looking to nab a seat in Trump country. In: ABC News , March 13, 2018.
  7. ↑ Elena Schneider, Alex Isenstadt: Republicans wage 11th-hour blitz in Pa. special election. In: Politico , March 12, 2018.
  8. ↑ Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns: No Result Yet in Pennsylvania House Race, but Democrat Declares Victory. In: The New York Times , March 13, 2018.
  9. ^ Jacob Pramuk: Democrat Conor Lamb is the apparent winner of Pennsylvania special election in Trump country. In: NBC News , March 14, 2018; Ella Nilsen: It's official: Democrat Conor Lamb wins Pennsylvania special election in major upset. In: Vox.com , March 14, 2018; Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin: Conor Lamb Wins Pennsylvania House Seat, Giving Democrats a Map for Trump Country. In: The New York Times , March 14, 2018.
  10. ↑ Karl Doemens: "Hypocritical" Conor Lamb embarrasses Donald Trump. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , March 14, 2018.
  11. ^ Eric Bradner: Republican Rick Saccone concedes 8 days after Pennsylvania special election. In: CNN.com , March 22, 2018.
  12. ^ Colin Deppen: Conor Lamb is finally, officially the US Representative for Pennsylvania's 18th District. In: The Incline , April 12, 2018.
  13. ^ Jon Delano: With 18th Congressional District Results Still Not Official, Lamb Prepares For Possible Showdown With Rothfus. In: CBS Pittsburgh , March 20, 2018; Brian C. Rittmeyer: Erin McClelland drops bid for Congress, endorses Conor Lamb against US Rep Keith Rothfus. In: Trib Live , March 20, 2018; Pennsylvania Primary Election Results. In: The New York Times , May 15, 2018.
  14. ↑ The Has Advantage in CD17. In: Monmouth.edu , July 24, 2018.
  15. ↑ Kyle Kondik: The House Tilts Toward the Democrats. In: Sabato's Crystal Ball , University of Virginia , July 24, 2018; David Wasserman: PA-17: Rothfus vs. Lamb Clash Moves From Toss Up to Lean Democratic. In: Cook Political Report , July 24, 2018.
  16. ↑ Conor Lamb - Ballotpedia . In: Ballotpedia . ( ballotpedia.org [accessed December 1, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Elena Schneider, Alex Isenstadt: Republicans wage 11th-hour blitz in Pa. special election. In: Politico , March 12, 2018.
  18. ^ Adam Kelsey, Erica Y. King: Meet Conor Lamb, the Democrat looking to nab a seat in Trump country. In: ABC News , March 13, 2018.
  19. ↑ Eric Bradner: Where Conor Lamb, Rick Saccone stood on the issues. In: CNN.com , March 13, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Lamb, Conor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lamb, Conor James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC