<p>Republican Troy Balderson defeated ;Democratic opponent Danny O&rsquo;Conner this week in a special election to determine who will represent Ohio&#8217;s 12th Congressional District.</p>
<p>The vote was tight, with Balderson ;scoring 50.1% of the vote to ;O&rsquo;Connor&rsquo;s 49.3%. Green Party candidate Joe Manchik ;earned ;less than 1% of the vote. ;</p>
<p>Republicans ;claimed victory Tuesday night, while liberal news outlets ;like ;<em>The Washington Post</em> ;continued to insist the race was &#8216;too close to call.&#8217; ;As noted Thursday afternoon by ;<em>The New York Times</em>, Balderson is leading by just 0.8 percentage points ;with roughly ;3,400 provisional ballots unaccounted for. ;According to Ohio law, there must be a recount if the final vote shows two candidates separated by less than 0.5 percentage points. ;</p>
<p>Democrats had been hoping O&#8217;Connor would win as part of an expected &#8220;blue wave&#8221; in primary elections that ;would carry the Dems to victory in November when they attempt to flip 23 seats to take House majority. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Democrats, I&rsquo;m sure, are going to try and turn this into some sort of moral victory,&rdquo; says Rep. ;Steve Stivers (R-OH). &ldquo;But last time I checked, moral victories don&rsquo;t get a vote on the congressional floor.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan congratulated Balderson on his victory Tuesday night. &ldquo;Congrats to @Troy_Balderson on his win in the #OH12 special election tonight. Looking forward to working with him to build on our accomplishments this fall.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Speaking to cheering supporters, Balderson promised he would work &ldquo;relentlessly&rdquo; to represent the district. &ldquo;America is on the right path, and we&rsquo;re going to keep it going that way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Over the next three months, I&rsquo;m going to do everything I can to keep America great again.&rdquo; Balderson, who supports Trump&#8217;s priorities for Obamacare and border security, ;assured ;voters that his loyalty to Trump would never supersede his dedication to the state of Ohio. ;</p>
<p>Balderson&#8217;s campaign received invaluable support from Ohio Governor John Kasich and from ;House Republicans, whose Congressional Leadership Fund spent $3.7 million opposing O&rsquo;Conner and about $2.4 million supporting Balderson. ;Later in his campaign, Balderson was endorsed by Present Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.</p>
<p>GOP ads against O&#8217;Connor portrayed him as a puppet of ;Nancy Pelosi, while Democrats&#8217; ads against Balderson attacked him for a comment he made in July about ;raising the minimum age for Medicare and Social Security. Days after the comment, Balderson said he would never made cuts to either program. ;</p>
<p><em>Balderson&#8217;s victory will send him straight to Washington, where he will serve the remainder of recently-retired Pat Tiberi&rsquo;s term. Tiberi stepped down in January after 16 years representing the district.</em></p>
<p><em>A second election will take place November 6th to determine which candidate will represent the 12th district starting in January 2019.</em></p>