A House hopeful made an appearance at votes Tuesday, shaking hands with a group of young Democratic lawmakers outside the House chamber. They weren’t talking campaign strategy; instead, the chatter focused instead on congressional baseball.

Danny O’Connor is the Democrat running in Ohio’s 12 district for a seat vacated when Rep. Pat Tiberi left Congress to take a job back in Ohio. He had a home state ambassador in Rep. Tim Ryan, who was scooting in and out of the chamber during the vote series to fetch a rotating cast of House Democrats to meet O’Connor. Rep. Joe Kennedy III was also searching for colleagues to meet the candidate, who connected with  Sean Patrick Maloney,  Linda T. Sánchez and others. 

At some points, the group surrounding the candidate was two people deep. One member in the huddle loudly asked if O’Connor played baseball, to laughs from the group. Ryan announced repeatedly that the candidate is a switch hitter and that Mike Doyle, the Pennsylvania Democrat who manages the team, is already getting excited.

Before O’Connor can suit up with his wannabe teammates, he’ll have to win his contest on August 7 against Republican Troy Balderson in a district that Nathan Gonzales of Inside Elections rates as “tilt Republican.”