U.S. under Trump Series: Republicans claim victory in Ohio special election

Tuesday’s special election in Ohio, which many in the media called it as a referendum on Donald Trump’s Presidency since he endorsed the candidate and even rallied for him in the 12th district just days before the election, is very much likely to be won by the Republican candidate Troy Balderson. Buoyed by a dramatic last-minute rally by President Trump, Republican State Senator Troy Balderson appeared to be inching closer to beating back a challenge by insurgent Democrat Danny O’Connor in Ohio's special election for a vacant House seat Tuesday.

According to reports, with 99 percent of the counting done, Mr. Balderson received 50.2 percent of the votes compared to 49.3 percent for his opponent, Mr. Danny O'Connor. Unofficial Ohio state election totals showed Balderson is leading with 101,574 votes to O'Connor’ 99,820, a mere 1,754 vote difference. While the Republicans including the President and Mr. Balderson have claimed victory, Mr. O’Connor is yet to concede the race and the reason is that technically the race remains a too close to call. There are at least 3,435 provisional ballots left to be reviewed and 5,048 outstanding absentee ballots. That might lead to a last-minute O’Connor victory, if not at least could trigger a mandatory recount if the gap is just 0.5 percent or less.

President Trump claimed in a tweet that his mojo has worked for Balderson, “When I decided to go to Ohio for Troy Balderson, he was down in early voting 64 to 36. That was not good. After my speech on Saturday night, there was a big turn for the better. Now Troy wins a great victory during a very tough time of the year for voting. He will win BIG in Nov.”

The result shows that the United States remain quite divided over future political direction.