National Republicans have done everything they can to make Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone the fall guy for their loss in the old 18th Congressional District, criticizing him for everything from his fundraising to his ads, his intelligence, and even his mustache. However, Saccone may end up in Congress next year anyway, which would make things … awkward. Saccone still hasn't conceded defeat against Democrat Conor Lamb, but with the Tuesday's candidate filing deadline approaching, Saccone has announced that he'll seek the GOP nomination to run in the new 14th District. However, as we'll explain, he's likely in for a tough May primary fight against state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler, who is reportedly planning to run as well.
The new 14th includes 57 percent of the seat Saccone lost on Tuesday. And while the old 18th District backed Trump "just" 58-39, the new 14th supported him 63-34, so even Saccone probably couldn't screw up a general election here. (Probably.) However, the new district doesn't contain any of Saccone's Allegheny County base, and it only includes a fraction of his state House district. And oh yeah, there's the whole thing about him being the most hated person in the GOP (this week, anyway).
Republicans began privately complaining about Saccone's campaign skills as far back as December, and Politico reported that some locals had been encouraging Reschenthaler to run even before Saccone lost. The gripping only got louder as we got closer to Election Day, and while some Republicans were probably only trying to lower expectations so they could spin the most narrow of Saccone wins as a massive victory, there really seems to be plenty of genuine anger with him. Corry Bliss, the head of Paul Ryan's allied super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund, said on the record—before any votes were even counted on Tuesday—that "the Saccone campaign was a joke." He added, "If we had a candidate who could walk and chew gum at the same time, we would have won that race."
Things only have only gotten more intense since Saccone lost, though the NRCC also still hasn’t conceded the defeat. While some Republicans publically admitted that what happened was a sign that they were in for a tough November, far more preferred to just blame Saccone for everything. One strategist even told the Washington Examiner that not only was Saccone a bad candidate, he had "a porn stache" he should have shaved off. So yeah, Rick Saccone has made a few enemies.
If Saccone had actually won on Tuesday, even barely, he might have been able to avert a primary challenge, but he didn't get so lucky. The Pittsburg Post-Gazette writes that Reschenthaler is "expected to run" in the new 14th, though his team isn't commenting. Like Saccone, Reschenthaler represents very little of this district, but unlike Saccone, he didn't just embarrass himself on a national stage.
Meanwhile, two other local legislators have taken their names out of contention here. State Sen. Kim Ward not only announced she wouldn't run and publicly encouraged Reschenthaler to get in, but she also told the Post-Gazette that petitions were already being circulated to get him on the ballot. All three ran for the special election nomination at a party convention (there was no primary), and after Ward was eliminated from contention, her supporters went over to Saccone and … the rest is history. (This time, she's obviously changed her mind about which horse to back.) State Sen. Camera Bartolotta has also said no.
There's one other thing to consider. Saccone needs to collect 1,000 valid signatures in less than a week, and given how many bridges he's burned, he may have a tough time getting organized quickly enough to get them. It would certainly be a fitting capstone to Saccone's career if he failed to make—or got booted from—the ballot. But even if he does get to the May primary, he’ll need to work a whole lot harder to beat Reschenthaler than he did to beat Lamb now that his name has become a synonym for failure. And should Saccone actually belatedly get to Congress, let's just say things are going to be pretty tense between him and well, everyone else on Capitol Hill.