KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. — Donald Trump may have found an issue that will bring Republicans home just one week before Election Day, and it isn’t his Democratic opponent.
The GOP nominee had his best showing of support from Republican lawmakers on Tuesday in battleground Pennsylvania, where he delivered a scathing indictment of Obamacare on the same day the open enrollment period for 2017 began.
Trump has sometimes been scorned by fellow Republicans on the campaign trail. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, for example, hasn’t endorsed him. Conservatives have pressed Trump to emphasize issues that unite Republicans.
Obamacare, they hope, may be that magic bullet.
Shortly before Trump and his running mate, Mike Pence, arrived for the invite-only event, nearly a half-dozen Republican congressmen, many of whom have worked in the healthcare industry as doctors, nurses or anesthesiologists, took the stage to criticize the sweeping healthcare law and praise their party’s nominee for pledging to repeal it should he defeat Hillary Clinton in seven days.
“Obamacare continues to eat away at our pocketbooks,” said Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. “It doesn’t have to be this way and when we elect Donald Trump as our next President, he will lead the charge to repeal and replace Obamaacre with commonsense solutions that will finally make healthcare more affordable and accesible for families across the United States.”
Tennessee Congressman Scott DesJarlais said he warned voters during his congressional bid in 2010 that Obamacare “was going to be a funnel to socialized medicine. Now, he’s warning Americans that Clinton “only promises more of the same.”
Lummis, Barrasso and DesJarlais were joined by Reps. Michael Burgess, Texas; Renee Ellmers, N.C.; Tom Price, Ga.; and Andy Harris, Md. Ex-White House hopeful and retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson was also present at the event, wher he told the Washington Examiner that Trump’s campaign is holding out hope that they can still pull off a victory in the Keystone State.
“I think we will win in Pennsylvania. It’s not hopeless at all,” Carson said.
After an impassioned introduction from Pence, Trump rallied the crowd with his promise to work diligently with the next Congress to immediately repeal Obamacare.
“People all across the country are devastated. In many instances, their healthcare costs are more than their monthly mortgage cost or rent,” Trump said, noting that he will “ask Congress to convene a special session” to quash the healthcare legislation should he make it to the Oval Office.
“Our replacement plan includes health savings accounts [and] a nationwide insurance market where you can purchase across state lines,” he said to applause. “It will be much better health care at a much less expensive cost.”
Trump’s struggle to unite Republicans reached its peak last month, following the release of an audio tape in which he was caught making lewd comments about women. The controversy led several supporters of his on Capitol Hill to withdraw their endorsements and join House Speaker Paul Ryan in distancing themselves from the top of the ticket.
But in recent weeks, Trump and Pence have seized on news that healthcare premiums are set to rise an average of 25 percent across the country in 2017. They have used the developments to reach undecided voters and skeptical Republicans who view Obamacare as a massive failure and desperately seek change.
Polls have showed the race tightening in the closing days as wavering Republicans return to the fold. Ryan said Tuesday that he voted for Trump.
But for Republicans looking to coalesce around something greater than opposition to Clinton, Obamacare is a possibility.
“I would say to some of my fellow Republicans out there, who believe we can have a health care system rooted in the free market and choice, it’s time to come home,” Pence said on Tuesday.
