Republican Senate candidates have certainly been fretting over whether or not to finally abandon Donald Trump after he was caught on tape bragging about sexual assault. Among those in tough races, some like Sen. Richard Burr have stuck by him, others like Sen. Pat Toomey have equivocated, while those like Sen. Kelly Ayotte have finally ditched him. However, new polling from the DSCC shows voters in Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are ready to punish Republicans no matter what they do.
While continuing to support Trump is a liability with most voters, Trump’s steadfast fanatics see Republicans who abandon him as a stab in the back and are willing to return the favor. After Republicans like Ayotte stood with Trump despite his long history of awfulness—she even called him a role model in a debate two weeks ago—many voters now seem to believe that disavowing Trump only now reeks of political opportunism rather than genuine principle.
The DSCC’s numbers, which mirror surveys taken for House Democrats last week, show a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t scenario for Republicans. This latest polling finds that informing voters of the Republican Senate candidate’s stance on Trump lowered that candidate’s margin between 4 and 6 percent—regardless of what that stance is.
Making things even more precarious for Republicans, they’ve spent so much effort on early ads while Team Blue, by contrast, planned for a late blitz. That's left Democrats poised to outspend the GOP on the airwaves in the final weeks in several states, giving them the means with which to educate voters about exactly where Republicans stand on Trump. And that could make all the difference between Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remaining in power, or Sen. Chuck Schumer taking over with a new Democratic majority.
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