Since Mitch McConnell admitted the obvious, that prospects for Republicans holding the Senate are slim, everybody is talking about it, and the surprising places where Donald Trump is making political life difficult for suddenly vulnerable senators.
The Republican presidential nominee's recent plunge in the polls in North Carolina, however, has vaulted Sen. Richard Burr into the ranks of the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents, according to Democratic and Republican strategists.
Republicans are also getting nervous about Missouri, where incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt faces a difficult challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander, a former Army captain.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a group close to the Senate GOP leadership, and One Nation have allocated $2.1 million and $993,000 since Aug. 1, respectively, to defend Blunt, according to a source who tracks media buys.
Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are big underdogs in their races. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is far ahead of Trump in Illinois and Wisconsin, and some believe those two GOP seats may already have been lost.
Democrats also do not appear to be in trouble of losing any seats.
A year ago, even six months ago, the idea that Burr and Blunt would be endangered would have been laughable. Not any more! One Senate Republican strategist gives the quote of the day:
“We’ve got a fantastic group of senators who are fighting against serious headwinds, all of whom have built campaigns to stand a drag atop the ticket. […] But there’s a limit beyond which even the best candidates can’t survive.”
It's a bed Republicans made for themselves. When they decided—186 day ago—that no matter what happened they weren't going to allow President Obama to have a Supreme Court appointment to replace Antonin Scalia, they put the cap on their years of obstruction. They decided en masse to follow their leader, the "most unpopular major political figure in the country" and are now reaping the consequences.
Let's throw them an anchor.
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