MORRISVILLE, Pa. – A mother and first-time political candidate, Candace Cabanas, finds herself distancing from the far-right rhetoric of the Republican Party led by Donald Trump, as she runs for a state House seat in Bucks County, a suburb outside of Philadelphia.
Her Democratic opponent, Jim Prokopiak, a school board member, is highlighting her supposedly close ties to the Trump-led GOP in his campaign. Prokopiak is running ads and sending mailers painting Cabanas as a “MAGA extremist” who supported book bans at schools and went door-knocking for Trump, allegations that Cabanas denies.
This race for the vacant state House seat is closely watched as the current partisan makeup of the lower chamber in Harrisburg is deadlocked at 101-101. The winner of the special election on Tuesday will tip the balance in favor of their party, making it a vital battleground for both Democrats and Republicans.
For Cabanas, the challenge lies in trying to appeal both to the more extreme faction of the GOP while also court independents and moderate voters in her district. She is trying to keep her campaign focused on the issues that matter most to working families, avoiding controversial talking points that might fire up the MAGA base, but turn off independent voters.
The dilemma for Republicans like Cabanas is figuring out how to strike a balance between distancing themselves from Trump while still maintaining the support of his loyal base, a tightrope walk that will become even more precarious as the fight for control of the U.S. House and Senate heats up.
Bucks County is a historically purple area, and voter turnout will play a crucial role in deciding the outcome in this vital swing state, where moderate and independent voters hold significant influence. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton narrowly won the county, only to lose the state to Trump. But in 2020, Joe Biden managed to win over the suburban voters and secure a victory in Bucks County, giving him the edge to claim Pennsylvania.
The narrative of tying Republicans to Trump has proven effective in recent elections, and Democrats plan to run aggressively on this strategy in 2024. They view Trump’s influence on the GOP as a potential liability and hope to leverage that to their advantage in battleground areas like Bucks County.