GOP panics as tax cut message flops hard in Pennsylvania special election

The Republican Party has been hoping that its massive tax cut would save it from electoral doom this fall -- but it seems that the GOP has completely given up on touting the tax cut in the final weeks of the special congressional election in Pennsylvania.

Analysis by Politico shows that Republican-backed ads mentioning tax cuts in Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district have been "essentially non-existent" since the start of March.

This marks a massive shift from early February, when more than 60 percent of GOP-backed ads touted the tax package as a boon for the American economy.

Corry Bliss, the executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund, tells Politico that his organization has dropped mentioning the tax cuts in its latest ads because "the mission right now is base turnout" -- which implies that promoting the GOP's signature legislative accomplishment isn't firing up its own party's base of voters.

A report on blue-collar Trump voters in the New York Times last week found that many of these voters thought that the tax cut was nice -- but they also didn't see it as a real solution to the problems they're facing right now.

"It’s lunch money," said Dan Neff, an employee at a machining and welding shop, of the tax cut.

The National Journal similarly reported earlier this month that the Republican Party is panicking about the upcoming special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district because its tax cut messaging is “barely moving the needle in the district’s working-class confines.”