A few quick thoughts about the Ohio 12th district special election.

Final election results. Via New York Times.

As you may be aware the special election in Ohio came down to the wire and was an extremely close victory for Troy Balderson, the Republican in the race. I have a few quick thoughts about the election and what it means. 

-Blue Twitter seems to be blaming the loss on Joe Manchick voters for the Green Party. The final election numbers pretty much blow that theory out of the water as even if every single one of those voters would have voted for Danny O'Connor, the Democrat, he still would have lost in an extremely tight race. And I doubt many of those people would have voted for a Democrat under any circumstances. Not everyone votes for the "lesser of two evils" and there is no guarantee that if Joe Manchik didn't run all of those people would have voted for O'Connor. Many would have stayed home and some might have even voted for Balderson. Attacking those voters will probably not endear any of them to the Democrats so it's kind of funny to watch. 

-Blue Twitter is also saying that this election is a moral victory for them as the race was close when it went pretty strongly for Trump in 2016. I don't buy it. Turnout is always down for special elections, but the Democrats poured money into this district, which is up for re-election in a couple months. Democrats were highly motivated and desperate for a win but still couldn't pull it off. GOP turnout will be up in November and I think that OH-12 is no longer in play for the Democrats. 

-The election was almost totally pointless. Like I mentioned, the office is up for re-election in November, so no matter who won, they would have to do it over again in a few months, only with a larger GOP advantage (barring a hell of an October Surprise). I honestly don't know why the Democrats raised and spent so much money for a seat that they would probably only hold onto for a couple of months. 

-This is a morale blow for the Democrats. Far from a blue wave, this was a narrow GOP victory. As much as the Democrats are trying to convince everyone that they will take the House and Senate this November, I see those elections going the same way as this one. A narrow victory for the GOP. I'm not seeing much of a red wave either, but I think the status quo will likely remain.