CANONSBURG, Pa. — On the final day of campaigning for a special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, Donald Trump Jr. toured a candy factory in Washington County to urge residents to vote for Rick Saccone, a Republican running against Democrat Conor Lamb for a seat in the House of Representatives.
Trump was the third member of the family to visit the district in recent weeks as part of a broader effort to support Saccone cross the finish line he has lagged behind for the past 10 days.
Monmouth University released a survey just before the bakery’s tour began that found Lamb outperforming the competition in three attendance models, all within a statistical margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.
“It’s very important that we remind voters not only of what my father accomplished, but that he needs every Republican member of the House of Representatives to continue that progress,” Trump Jr. told the Washington Examiner after he and Saccone completed a tour of the family’s iconic candy business, a staple in Canonsburg since 1963.
Trump Jr. noted that Sarris Candies is a prime example of a petite American business that is booming under Trump’s tax reform bill. He reminded his supporters that no Democrat, no matter how moderate or centrist, supports the bill.
“Sarris Candies employs over 400 people, they told me they hired 80 people after the tax reform bill passed,” he said. “That’s not counting the ripple effect it has on the surrounding community.”
After eating ice cream at the retail store, Trump Jr. toured the sprawling factory with Saccone and Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus of the 12th Congressional District. He wore a hairnet as he chatted with the mostly female bakers about their craft, passing aisles lined with hundreds of immense and petite chocolate Easter bunnies, white chocolate crosses and colorful, murky chocolate baskets.
Lamb, who had no events scheduled for Monday, has campaigned heavily to portray himself as a centrist, pro-gun, pro-custody independent who is free from the influence of his party. Trump Jr. said, “It’s great advertising, but we all know what happens when you go to Washington, you have to toe the party line, so it’s important to elect Republicans who are going to work with the president.”
Lamb’s youth and charm, and the lack of any record against which he could compete, have kept Saccone in the polls. National Republicans, worried about the symbolism of losing a seat Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points, have begun criticizing him personally.
Trump Jr. dismissed a Monday story published by Axios that reported his father had called Saccone frail. “That’s not anything I’ve heard or know about,” he said.
Win or lose, Trump Jr. said the biggest lesson anyone can learn from this race is to never let up on the pressure: “For me, the most important thing is to stay in the game.”
“He’s not on the list of candidates in 2018, he’s not on the list of candidates tomorrow, people need to realize that on many issues he is, because all his accomplishments, everything he’s done, all the victories that they’re used to now could disappear” if voters don’t show up for the House race, the president’s eldest son said.
Trump Jr. acknowledged that they can’t employ his father’s modern 2020 slogan, “Keep America Great,” which he unveiled at a rally in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, if his voters become complacent. Democrats, he said, “will stand in the way of everything” his father wants to achieve.
Democrats need to pick up 24 Republican-held seats to gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
Trump Jr. said the solution is to focus on his father’s accomplishments and “the future.”
“Think about what he’s done in 14 months and what he can do in the next eight years,” Trump Jr. said. “You can’t do that if you lose the House and the Senate. And there’s only so much you can do with executive action.”
Trump Jr., who delivered a bracing speech for his father on the second night of the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2016, raised his profile and his ability to be an effective surrogate for his father on the campaign trail. He said his life has changed dramatically since his father won the presidency.
“Every day is a struggle, every day is a trap,” he said, explaining how he learned that any change in the tone of his voice could change the meaning of what he said in a story.
However, he enjoys traveling to places like western Pennsylvania, Ohio and the West, where he connects with people through his love of hunting, which serves as a shared cultural reference point.
“I see what they see. Look, I understand, I fully realize that I am not the most likely person to be an indicator of what is happening to the real working class in America… but I am,” he said. “Because they are my friends. You don’t see me on the New York rubber chicken dinner circuit nonsense. I hang out with real Americans. That’s who I choose to spend what little free time I have.”
Where does he go to unwind? His family: “I have five children, ages 10 to 3. I spend a lot of time with them and outdoors.”
From the Sarris candy factory, Trump Jr. traveled to Elizabeth Township, Pennsylvania, to talk to Saccone campaign volunteers from the Blaine Hill Volunteer Fire Department and encourage people to go to the polls on Tuesday.
