Message to GOP Senators Trying to Distance Themselves from Trump: “Good Luck”

As Donald Trump continues to make one divisive comment after another and demonstrate on a daily basis that he is unfit to be President, Senate GOP leaders are desperately trying to distance themselves from their party’s nominee and “localize” their Senate elections. But to quote congressional expert Thomas Mann, “Good luck!”

 

Ron Fournier laid out the stark reality for Republicans bluntly when he wrote:

 

Although these and other GOP leaders will try to distance themselves from Trump’s most offensive comments, they can’t. First, from the moment he accepts the Republican nomination in Cleveland, Trump will be the titular head of their party. Second, they knowingly backed an intolerant narcissist. This was no accident, no bait and switch.

 

And as Michelle Cottle reported this morning, for Republicans, “There’s No Escaping the Top of the Ballot.” According to law professor Richard Pildes, split-ticket voting, which Mitch McConnell has tried to claim will save his party, is down to 5 percent.

 

Stories from around the country this weekend demonstrated how tied GOP Senate candidates are to Trump:

• New Hampshire: Sen. Kelly Ayotte said Sunday night that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s recent comments about a judge of Mexican heritage and Muslim judges are “offensive and wrong, and he should retract them.”

But Ayotte’s overall position on Trump has not changed. She still she plans to support the GOP presidential nominee. (WMUR 6/5/16) 

• Ohio: How awkward will it be for congressional Republicans like Sen. Rob Portman to run for re-election with Donald Trump at the top of ticket? Saturday offered a brutal hint, as Portman, R-Ohio, faced questions from reporters about Trump’s attacks on the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University. (Cincinnati Enquirer 6/4/16) 

• Arizona: Despite the personal attacks by Trump on the senator’s integrity and war record, McCain cannot afford to reject Trump and alienate his many supporters in Arizona if he hopes to hold his seat, an agonizing trade-off. (New York Times 6/4/16)

• Nevada: “I don’t believe that what somebody else says about a specific demographic is going to come back and hurt me,” says Representative Joe Heck, the likely Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada… Cortez Masto would be the first Latina senator ever, a powerful biography — even more so, potentially, with Trump at the top of the ticket. At an event with supporters Tuesday at El Tarasco, a Mexican restaurant tucked into a strip mall in Las Vegas, she never mentions Trump’s name. But the issues he might raise for Republicans are ever present at the event. (National Review 6/3/16)

 

The facts are, the GOP is now the party of Trump, and every GOP Senate candidate will have to answer for their party’s standard bearer. As Fournier said, “For Ryan, McConnell, and Priebus, and for every Republican candidate on a ballot in November, there is no pivot from Trump. They are him.”

 

 

 

The Atlantic: Trump’s Endorsers Can’t Disown His Comments

Ron Fournier 

 

Key Point #1: Although these and other GOP leaders will try to distance themselves from Trump’s most offensive comments, they can’t. First, from the moment he accepts the Republican nomination in Cleveland, Trump will be the titular head of their party. Second, they knowingly backed an intolerant narcissist. This was no accident, no bait and switch.

 

Key Point #2: These Republicans don’t get it. Racial and religious intolerance aren’t something to be “concerned about.” They’re something to denounce and drive out of a political party—to banish to the fringes of the internet where, hopefully, they won’t infect the rest of society.

 

Key Point #3: For Ryan, McConnell, and Priebus, and for every Republican candidate on a ballot in November, there is no pivot from Trump.

 

Read full article here.

 

 

 

The Atlantic: There’s No Escaping the Top of the Ballot

Michelle Cottle 

 

Key Point #1: Republican congressional contenders are laboring to denationalize this election, wrapping themselves in legendary House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s pet aphorism: “All politics is local.” To which congressional expert Thomas Mann says: Good luck!

 

Key Point #2: “The level of split-ticket voting between the presidential race and races in the House and Senate is down to about 5 percent at this point,” said Richard Pildes, a law professor at NYU who has written on the nationalization of U.S. elections. Getting that number up much higher, predicted Pildes, “will be like pushing a boulder up a hill.”

 

Key Point #3: In other words, the more purple/competitive your state, the more likely it is that your voters will be subjected to a total-saturation level of presidential campaigning relentless enough to give them nightmares and nosebleeds. Good luck competing with—much less escaping—that as a mere Senate or House candidate.

 

Read full article here.