Running Away From Trump

GOP candidates who once watched the president thwart the political futures of Republicans deemed not sufficiently loyal are finding he may bring them down this fall.

A RECENT SENATE campaign ad touts the candidate’s record protecting public lands and national parks and how that’s pleased environmentalists. One ad features his work getting masks from overseas to protect people from the coronavirus and shows his state’s Democratic governor thanking him for his effort. There is no ad highlighting an endorsement or praise from President Donald Trump.

It’s not a typical summer ad campaign from a Republican incumbent fighting for reelection in a highly polarized political environment. But it may be Cory Gardner’s best hope of remaining Colorado’s junior senator after the fall elections – and the only hope Republicans have of hanging onto control of the Senate, experts say.

“Some of (the GOP candidates) will definitely outperform” Trump at the ballot box, with endangered Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine the most likely to do so, says Amy Walter, national editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “The question is, at what point is the weight too heavy for them to reach the surface? It’s the difference between being able to pull a 5-pound weight and being able to pull a 200-pound weight. He’s a 200-pound weight.” Continue reading.