Wednesday, June 21, 2017
A look at the outcome of Tuesday's congressional elections in South Carolina and Georgia, and what message the parties can take from the results going into the 2018 mid-terms. Mike Collins talks with both sides of the aisle.
Voters in a pair of Southern congressional districts, including South Carolina's 5th District, filled two vacant Republican seats Tuesday against the backdrop of White House turmoil.
The race for the South Carolina seat once held by Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's budget director, seemed out of grasp for Democrats. Nominee Archie Parnell ran double digits behind Republican Ralph Norman in recent polling, and received minimal investment from the national Democrats in a district Trump carried by 18 points last fall.
Instead, Democrats pinned their hopes on Georgia's Sixth District and middle-of-the-road nominee Jon Ossoff, who took a moderate tack in an effort to woo independents and moderate Republicans. That contest set a fundraising record for a single House race.
After a string of better-than-expected results that were still losses in other special elections this year, the Georgia race could set the tone for next year's mid-terms. Should Democrats make next year all about Trump? Do Republicans distance themselves from the president in order to maintain their majority in Congress?
GUESTS
Tom Bullock, WFAE News (@TomWFAE)
Gibbs Knotts, College of Charleston, chair of the Department of Political Science (@GibbsKnotts)
Larry Shaheen, Republican political strategist, Carolina Political Consulting (@LawrenceShaheen)
Jim Thompson, chairman, York County Democratic Party (@YorkCoSCDems)