U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2018 special On October 5, 2017, the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Lamb was considering running for Congress in a special election for
Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district. The district included parts of
Allegheny,
Greene,
Washington and
Westmoreland counties. The vacancy was created when incumbent Republican Representative
Tim Murphy resigned amid revelations that he had had an extramarital affair and urged his mistress to terminate an unexpected pregnancy, despite his long record as a vocal opponent of abortion. Murphy had run for reelection unopposed in 2014 and 2016. Lamb was selected as the Democratic nominee at a convention in November 2017. In the general election, he faced Republican state Representative
Rick Saccone. Despite the district's Republican bent, the special election was considered highly competitive and attracted national attention. National Republican sources spent more than $8 million on television advertising, twice as much as the Democrats. Several prominent Republicans, including President
Donald Trump,
Vice President Mike Pence and Trump's children
Donald Jr. and
Ivanka, visited the district to campaign for Saccone. During the campaign, Republicans accused Lamb of having a "weak record" as a prosecutor.
FactCheck.org examined the Republicans' claims, calling them "flimsy and misleading". By the end of election night on March 13, 2018, Lamb led by 641 votes. When all absentee ballots were counted, Lamb led by 627 votes, with a few provisional and military ballots yet to be counted. Lamb claimed victory on Tuesday night. Early on Wednesday morning, citing the large net pickup of absentee votes for Lamb, NBC News called the race for Lamb. On Wednesday afternoon,
The New York Times followed suit after concluding that Lamb's lead, while narrow, appeared "insurmountable". However, most news outlets did not declare a result, noting the closeness of the vote (just 0.2% separated the candidates) and the likelihood of a recount. Lamb's lead came primarily on the strength of winning the Allegheny County portion of the district by almost 15,400 votes. He lost the rest of the district by 14,700 votes. After Lamb's apparent win in the special election, Republicans claimed that he won because "he ran as a conservative". This was a distinct shift from the campaign, during which Republicans said Lamb "Walks The Liberal Party Line" and chastised him for opposing the
Republican 2017 tax reform bill. He was sworn in by
House Speaker Paul Ryan on April 12, 2018, and became the first Democrat to represent this district since 2003, when it was numbered as the 20th district.
2018 general After the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the state's original congressional map and replaced it with a court-drawn map, the old 18th was reconfigured as the
14th district and made even more Republican on paper. Meanwhile, Lamb's home in Mt. Lebanon was drawn into the
17th district. That district had previously been the
12th, represented by three-term Republican
Keith Rothfus. The district had lost much of its eastern portion, centered around
Johnstown, becoming a more compact district northwest of Pittsburgh. In the process, the district lost its connection to longtime congressman
John Murtha, who represented it from 1974 to 2010. While the old 12th was one of Trump's strongest districts in Pennsylvania in 2016, Trump would have only barely carried the new 17th. The new 17th also voted for Democrats in downballot races. This led to speculation that Lamb would run for a full term in the new 17th, regardless of the special election results. On March 14,
Beaver County Democratic Party chairman Stephen Dupree told
ABC News that Lamb submitted a written request for county Democrats to endorse his bid for the 17th in the November 2018 general election; Beaver County is entirely within the new 17th. On March 16, Lamb announced on his
Twitter account that he was in the process of gathering petitions for a run in the 17th. On March 20, he formally submitted petitions for a full term in the 17th. He was unopposed in the May 15 primary and defeated Rothfus in the general election. Biden supported Lamb as he had in 2018, and Lamb was an early endorser and surrogate for Biden's campaign in that year's
presidential primary elections. Biden was the first Democrat to win the district since
John Kerry won the old 12th in 2004.
Tenure and President
Joe Biden in Pittsburgh Lamb voted against
Nancy Pelosi as
Speaker of the House, voting instead for
Joe Kennedy III, a fellow Democrat. In May 2020, Trump endorsed Lamb's 2020 election opponent while falsely claiming that Lamb had voted for Pelosi as Speaker. On April 13, 2018, Lamb broke with most of his party and voted for the Volcker Rule Regulation Harmonization Act, which would exempt banks with less than $10 billion in assets from the
Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from making risky investments with customers' money. On December 18, 2019, Lamb voted for both articles of impeachment against Trump. In December 2020, Lamb broke with most of his party and voted against the
MORE Act which would have
removed cannabis from schedule I of the controlled substance act. In 2020,
Fortune magazine included Lamb in their '
40 Under 40' listing under the "Government and Politics" category. As of March 2022, Lamb had voted in line with
Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time.
Committee assignments •
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology •
Subcommittee on Energy •
Subcommittee on Research and Technology •
'''Committee on Veterans' Affairs''' •
Subcommittee on Health •
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations •
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure •
Subcommittee on Aviation •
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Caucus memberships •
Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus •
Expand Social Security Caucus •
Congressional Steel Caucus (Chair) •
Problem Solvers Caucus == U.S. Senate campaign ==