Screenshot from Zoom Senate hopeful and Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb spoke to county voters on a Zoom call Saturday afternoon

State-wide candidates continue to make their pitch to county voters.

On Saturday, the local Democratic Party held a Zoom call with Senate hopeful and current Rep. Conor Lamb.

“I think that the Senate race is critically important,” he said, noting the range of issues where Democrats have fallen one or two votes short from voting rights legislation to minimum wage to Build Back Better.

Lamb took that a step further though and suggested that the election is a “crucial test of our ability to protect our democracy. Trump and all of his minions will come in here and tell all their toxic lies” in an attempt to rule from a minority position.

“We’ve got a big task on our hands,” he said, not only to address the “material needs of Pennsylvanians” but “really trying to do something great for the whole country.”

Lamb told county voters that he has already case votes on many of those issues in the house and highlighted his experience in the 17th Congressional District, which currently includes parts of Allegheny and Butler and all of Beaver counties.

He said former President Trump won his district by 19 points but that his approach was to “take the edge off” partisan issues and focusing on the basic needs of families.

“I know what it’s like to go out with the spotlight on (under) tough circumstances and win,” he said. “That is what we need to do. We don’t protect this democracy if we don’t have a winning candidate with a winning strategy.”

That winning strategy? Talking about “pocketbook issues,” Lamb said, on a wide array of issues including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, retirement and student loans.

He would argue to “lower costs for all these families where we can,” he added. “Republicans are going to criticize us over higher gas prices. They are high all over the entire world. The same is true for groceries, cars. In the meantime, we can make sure every family in our state is paying less for prescription drugs, student loans.”

Lamb said that it is “very important to listen to people” if you want to represent them and he promised to visit every county every year if elected to the Senate so “people can tell me what they want me to be working on.”

He said he has represented rural counties in his time in the House.

“What I hear from them, a lot about infrastructure, money for development,” Lamb said. “Warren County is like this too. You have your own ideas… (and) what you need is investment capital” on issues ranging from water systems, internet, roads to housing.

“You know what’s best for you,” he said, asserting rural Pennsylvania needs a voice in Washington. “I would do that state-wide.”

Lamb said a “more pressing” issue now is “rural hospitals and the services they offer. Many of them have walked back a lot of critical services. I think we need coming out of the pandemic a bailout bill for rural hospitals nation-wide.”

The Democratic primary is highly contested, highlighted by Lamb, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

So the question posed by a voter was simple – why should they vote Lamb?

He suggested that the primary is about determining “who can go out and win this thing in November.”

“What I think is different about me than the others,” he said, is three general election wins against Republicans who former President Trump campaigned for.

He said “enough different types of voters were willing to support (me) that I would win under these tough circumstances. (I’m) also someone who is with you on all the core issues.”

He added that he didn’t consider Zoom a “replacement for coming in person” and said he looks “forward to getting out your way.”