GOP Rep. Rothfus Trailing Rep. Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania

On Sunday night, President Donald Trump made a strong pitch through Twitter to boost the re-election changes of Republican Rep. Keith Rothfus in Pennsylvania’s newly-drawn 17^th District.

Rothfus, Trump tweeted, “is in the fight of his life because the Dems changed the District Map. He must win. Strong on crime, borders, big tax & reg[ulatory] cuts, Military & Vets. Opponent Lamb a Pelosi puppet-weak on crime. BIG ENDORSEMENT FOR KEITH.”

His strongly-worded — even for the president — blessing came three days after a Monmouth University poll showed three-termer Rothfus trailing Democrat and fellow Rep. Conor Lamb by 54 to 42 percent districtwide. According to Monmouth, Lamb leads in every part of the 17th District. The margin of error is 5.2 percentage points.

Whether Trump’s endorsement will help Rothfus or not is questionable. According to Monmouth, 41 percent of district voters approve of the president’s performance and 58 percent disapprove. 

Last year, former prosecutor and U.S. Marine Lamb won a nationally-watched special election in the 18^th District, which Lamb currently represents. In narrowly defeating a Trump-backed Republican, Lamb ran as a moderate — saying he was “personally” pro-life, but wouldn’t change laws, and would not support Nancy Pelosi for speaker.

"The controversy over [Supreme Court nominee] Kavanaugh probably helped Keith Rothfus a little, and Lamb was completely silent about it,” former Rep. Melissa Hart, R.-PA, who represented Rothfus’s district from 2000-06, told Newsmax, “But Lamb has been on TV with all the media hype since December. He was getting virtually free and unchallenged media until September and it created a persona that is anti-Trump.”