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Good morning.

I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily 202 for Wednesday, August 8th.

In today's news, Rick Gates admits on the stand that he had an extramarital affair. In the And the head of the GSA misled Congress about Trump's role in killing the FBI's move to a new headquarters.

But first, the big idea.

Alarm bells ring for House Republicans.

A tight special election between Democrat Danny O'Connor and Republican Troy Balderson

and a deep red Ohio House district on Tuesday has reinforced a trend that's

been developing for more than a year. Democrats are routinely beating their

2016 performance by double digits, putting the House within their grasp this November.

In Ohio's 12th Congressional District, which encompasses the northern suburbs of Columbus and rural

areas to the east, voters preferred President Trump by 11 points two years ago.

But with this special election too close to call early Wednesday morning, the

voters there showed a market shift away from the GOP.

Republican Pat Tberry, whose resignation to take a job leading the Ohio Business Roundtable,

prompted the special, won re-election by 37 points in 2016. Republicans dramatically outspent

Democrats by millions and Trump paid the Buckeye state a last-minute visit

over the weekend. But despite all that, Balderson had just 1,700 more votes out of 200,000 cast.

That's less than 1%. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the House.

There are 72 Republican-held districts with

...