Lamb ready to declare run for Senate
Conor Lamb will announce his run for U.S. Senate on Friday, saying in a video announcement he believes Pennsylvania can help “save” democracy by electing another Democrat to the chamber who will protect the Constitution in the face of propaganda and lies.
Mr. Lamb, the 17th District congressman who was long anticipated to join the crowded Democratic field for outgoing Sen.
Pat Toomey’s seat, starts the video, which was posted Friday morning, by insisting the people in Pennsylvania who “have come to believe that our democracy is in crisis” are indeed correct.
“The other side denies reality and worships [former President Donald] Trump,” Mr. Lamb says of Republicans. “They’re making it harder to vote and lying about our elections. Well, I swore an oath to protect the Constitution as a Marine, as a prosecutor and as a member of Congress, and I will keep that oath.”
His announcement is an opening shot at Republicans — some of whom are in the GOP field running for Senate — who said the 2020 election was stolen and favor sweeping changes to the
election system against the backdrop of those unsubstantiated claims. It’s also a callback to the day the Capitol was mobbed by supporters of Mr. Trump who wanted to overturn the election; Mr. Lamb took to the House floor that night and — over shouts by Republicans — said the attack “didn’t materialize out of nowhere” and was inspired by GOP lies.
Mr. Lamb, a 37-year-old former Marine and federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Pittsburgh office whose grandfather was the state Senate’s Democratic floor leader, said he will announce his candidacy later Friday. He planned an event for 2 p.m. on the South Side billed as an “announcement” alongside local union members and elected officials.
Seated in front of a camera, Mr. Lamb, in the video, says he thinks this is the most important Senate seat in the country and talks of building on the Democratic majority and telling “the truth about what’s really going on in people’s lives.”
“We need to raise pay for working people, protect your retirement and make sure you have health care when you need it,” Mr. Lamb said. “All of these issues are on the line next year, and our opponents will lie about them, just like they lie about elections.”
Mr. Lamb mentions Mr. Trump twice by name in the video and, in one line, remarks the former president “knows how important Pennsylvania is” and has campaigned here against him three times. Mr. Lamb first won a seat in Congress in 2018 when he beat Republican Rick Saccone in a special election, then won a newly drawn seat against Keith Rothfus before defending it in 2020 against former Army Ranger Sean Parnell. Mr. Parnell is now pursuing the Republican nomination for the Senate.
After his announcement, Mr. Lamb will visit “a dozen counties” in the next week, he said. Details are yet to be announced.
“These are serious times, and we won’t win this race on Twitter,” Mr. Lamb says. “We’ll win it going town by town — talking to people and listening. That starts today.”
Mr. Lamb currently represents a district that covers parts of Allegheny and Butler counties, as well as all of Beaver County. Many experts believe the district will be drawn into another district — and essentially eliminated — during the Congressional redistricting that will take place over the coming months.
He joins a Democratic primary field that includes Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock; Val Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners; and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta of Philadelphia.