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This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
Rick Saccone, the Maryland Republican who defeated Anthony Brown for the US House in 2012, is endorsing Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, who is running against Democrat Conor Lamb in the Republican Senate primary next week.
Saccone tweeted a message Thursday morning that said Lamb “is a terrific man with the right values.”
“If I could have chosen a senator for president, I would have gone with Conor Lamb, who I believe will restore honor to the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Saccone wrote.
If I could have chosen a senator for president, I would have gone with @conorlamb who I believe will restore honor to the Senate and the House of Representatives. #PELife pic.twitter.com/nOJy0t4Xa7 — Rick Saccone (@RickSaccone) August 4, 2017
The endorsement comes just hours before the two Republicans face each other in the first televised general election for the Senate. Democrats are defending 20 Senate seats, while the GOP is defending 21.
More: Democrats keep an eye on Lamb in first Senate primary poll, a close race remains for GOP-held seats Read more
Saccone tweeted on Tuesday that his endorsement was a “no-brainer” and he’s “really excited to be working side-by-side with @conorlamb.”
Lamb appears poised to take the lead in the three-person GOP race, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released Wednesday, after the first of seven televised Republican debates. Forty-four percent of Republican voters say they are looking forward to a general election showdown between Saccone and Lamb in November, compared to 49 percent who say they are hoping to have an easy reelection.
Saccone, a former National Republican Congressional Committee chairman and former state party chairman, is not a stranger to electoral politics. In 2012, he lost to Brown in the general election, a victory he said was “the best opportunity that my district has had in the near 20-year history of redistricting.”
Lamb, who was elected to the state Senate in 2014, is a former mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has worked in politics for years.