Senate Republicans are feeling high anxiety over President Trump’s aggressive response to nationwide civil unrest, which they fear is alienating middle-of-the-road voters who are crucial to keeping their majority after Nov. 3.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared at the beginning of the election cycle that winning over college graduates and women in the suburbs would be key to retaining the Senate majority in 2020.
With the election five months away, Senate Republicans worry that Trump is blowing up that strategy with his laser-like focus on his base instead of swing voters.
“The last week and a half has certainly raised the level of angst over the politics of the presidential race and consequences on the Senate. I think it’s just kind of become one thing after another. Initially the handling of COVID and now this,” said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss conversations with GOP colleagues.
GOP senators were already nervous about keeping their majority because of the administration’s slow response to the coronavirus crisis and several Trump gaffes, including his advice that ingesting disinfectant could treat COVID-19.
“There are a lot of people in the middle that are looking for calmness,” said a second GOP senator who asked for anonymity to voice concerns about Trump’s recent performance. “It’s the tone and the words he’s using that I think might harm us back home.”
The first GOP lawmaker said concerns about Trump’s performance are never raised in conference-wide meetings but that senators do talk about it in one-on-one conversations.
“The things that have happened in the past week seems like they’ve really captured not just people’s attention but their emotion, their sense of wellbeing,” added the senator, who also noted an opinion piece this week by the conservative writer George Will.
Will, a Washington Post columnist, wrote that Trump “must be removed” and “voters must dispatch his congressional enablers, especially the senators who gambol around his ankles with a canine hunger for petting.”
……….
- Discussion
-
Republicans fear Trump may cost them Senate https://t.co/24cw2sYTje pic.twitter.com/EW6TJEcKBW
— The Hill (@thehill) June 6, 2020
Personally, I believe if the Republicans lose the senate, they have themselves to blame. It’s not necessarily going to be Trump’s doing. The party has broken every promise it has been making since at least 2010. Even when the party had the majority in both houses of congress and the presidency, they could get nothing done other than that so-called tax reform package they passed a few years ago which in my view was largely a scam that benefitted few, if any.
After years of doing nothing, after having lost the house and now in danger of losing the senate, these lazy lumps are trying to hitch their wagon to Trump’s star and it looks like that will end up being a bad idea. I still believe Trump will be re-elected in November, but that success is not going to rub off on the rest of his party.
The party is already weak, it won’t regain the house and if it loses the senate, I can just about guarantee Trump’s inner Democrat will shine through. He has already shown a willingness to spend this country into bankruptcy just like the Democrats he claims to abhor. But I still expect with a Democrat congress, we will see all their promises of the Green New Deal, free tuition, reparations and the rest of their horse manure come to fruition and Trump will do nothing to stop them.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.