Vulnerable Senate Republicans Are Stuck With the “Least Sympathetic Man in Washington” [HuffPost]

McConnell “has become a fairly nonpartisan villain, a symbol of corruption,” and a “walking, talking definition of what people hate about Washington”

As vulnerable Republican Senators brace for tough re-election battles, they now have one more thing to worry about: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s toxic reputation. McConnell has prevented the Senate from taking action on the issues that matter to Americans, like bringing down health care and prescription drug costs or protecting our democracy from foreign attacks, and has instead turned all his efforts to stacking the courts with anti-choice, anti-health care ideologues — all while continuing to benefit from his self-serving politics and ethical conflicts of interest.

McConnell “has become a fairly nonpartisan villain, a symbol of corruption” and, as one strategist put it, ‘the least sympathetic man in Washington.’” Now, McConnell’s deep unpopularity in key states poses a serious threat to the Senate Republicans who have supported his leadership without question and voted in lockstep with his agenda.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

HuffPost: Mitch McConnell Will Be The Boogeyman Of The 2020 Elections

Republicans and Democrats alike are trying to turn the senator from Kentucky into American politics’ ultimate antagonist.

By Kevin Robillard

Key Points:

• “Mitch McConnell is a transcendent figure in American politics; he is a unifier. He unites everyone in hatred and animosity toward him, including Republicans,” said Matt Canter, a Democratic pollster at Global Strategy Group who recently conducted a survey that could guide Democrats’ anti-McConnell efforts. “He’s a walking, talking definition of what people hate about Washington and the corrupt political system today.”

• McConnell’s approval rating among swing-state voters in the survey is just 26%, with 50% viewing him unfavorably. Among independents, just 18% view him favorably, and 58% have a negative opinion. In counties that swung from former President Barack Obama to President Trump, his approval rating is 25%, while 53% have a negative opinion.

• While McConnell has been a prominent Democratic boogeyman since at least the start of Obama’s administration, the Democratic base is increasingly aware of McConnell after his starring roles in the blockade of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and the successful nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The DSCC’s fundraising messages now focus heavily on McConnell.

• “When President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell didn’t even let him have a hearing,” reads one of the dozens of McConnell-centric Facebook ads the DSCC is running. “Now that Donald Trump is in power, Mitch McConnell is going NUCLEAR by changing the rules to pack our courts with extreme right-wing judges like Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on the bench instead.”

• The use of McConnell but not the president…shows how Democrats believe McConnell has become a fairly nonpartisan villain, a symbol of corruption and, as one strategist put it, “the least sympathetic man in Washington.”

• [McConnell] also eagerly announced his willingness to fill a Supreme Court seat in 2020 after using the election-year status of Garland’s nomination as a fig leaf for blocking it.

Read the full story here.

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