The party of Donald Trump thinks it has a real winning strategy for 2018: try to make it about Elizabeth Warren. Democrats will be playing major defense in the Senate, with just two potentially competitive Republican-held seats, so any Republican strategy might end up looking successful, up to and including attacks on red-state Democrats for their links to an adorable kitten. But really? Elizabeth Warren is the monster under the bed for Republicans?
The new NRSC ads focus on the 10 Democrats on the ballot in states Trump carried, dinging them for voting with Warren. They say West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin voted with her 78 percent of the time and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown did so 97 percent of the time. It’s not clear how much money is behind them, though officials said they will appear on Facebook feeds in those competitive states.
Guys. Donald Trump. You think the senator from Massachusetts—who, by the way, will be up for re-election and won’t have as much time to stump for other candidates as she has the past two cycles, and whose ideas are broadly popular—is going to be an effective way to nationalize the evils of the Democratic Party over Donald freaking Trump? Oh, wait. It’s called grasping at straws.
And if this straw-grasping doesn’t look like a home run success (and again, remember the likely success of the “Red-state Democrat linked to adorable kitten” attack in at least one of the states where Democrats are playing very difficult defense), Republicans will only have succeeded in elevating Warren’s national profile. so they’re taking some very real risks here.