Ohio Candidate Danny O' Connor Blasts Pelosi and Trump: 'I Don't Think He Knows What He Is Talking About'

With Tuesday's special election for Ohio's 12th Congressional District still too close to call Wednesday morning, Democratic candidate Danny O'Connor issued a strong rebuke of President Donald Trump and the current Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, saying Ohio voters want "a new generation of leadership" in Washington.

"We can do better than we're doing right now," O'Connor said of Pelosi when asked during a CNN interview if supporting her was too politically "toxic" for Democrats. Asked in a separate interview with MSNBC whether he would support Pelosi as speaker, should the Democrats regain control of the House, he replied: "No, I won't."

"We need to have the backs of working folks…but no one is fighting for them in Washington," O'Connor told CNN.

Taking aim at the president, the candidate said: "I don't think he knows what he is talking about," when it comes to the district O'Connor is running for. Trump held a last-minute rally Saturday for O'Connor's Republican opponent, Troy Balderson, in a late effort to garner some much-needed support for the candidate. Balderson was previously polling at a virtual tie with his Democratic opponent, a surprise to many considering Trump won the district by 11 points less than two years earlier.

"I don't think he knows what he's talking about. You can fly in, hang out here for a couple hours, fly out," O'Connor said of Trump. "You don't walk our roads, you don't have kids in our schools, you don't deal with the public health crisis of addiction we have in our state every day. I think it's more important to have grassroots conversations."

He added: "Troy Balderson can have all of the people he wants fly in from D.C., I don't think it makes that much of a difference."

As of Wednesday morning, the race between O'Connor and Balderson was still too close to call with just 0.9 percent, or 1,754 votes, separating them. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Balderson sat at 50.2 percent and O'Connor at 49.3 percent. Although the race has yet to be called and O'Connor has not conceded, Balderson, Trump, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other GOP politicians declared victory Tuesday night.

With more than 5,000 absentee ballots and more than 3,400 provisional ballots yet to be counted, it could be weeks until an official winner is declared. Ohio state law does not allow the ballots to be counted until 11 days after the election, which is August 18. If the vote count comes within 0.5 percent, an automatic recount will take place.

No matter who emerges as the winner of Tuesday's special election, both O'Connor and Balderson will again face off during the midterm elections in November.