“Trump’s stubborn, but unsurprising, insistence that he won’t be changing his ways further exposes numerous House Republicans’ ‘earn their vote’ talking point for the political doublespeak it clearly is. Certainly, House Republicans in swing districts face a fundamental math problem and know they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t when it comes to Trump. But at a certain point, these excuses are just lame and transparently desperate to voters,” said Meredith Kelly of the DCCC.
Vulnerable House Republicans still have no good answers to Trump questions
By Amber Phillips
August 15, 2016
[…] With less than 90 days before an election that looks increasingly challenging for Republicans at all levels, a number of House Republicans who are on the fence about whether to support Donald Trump still don’t seem to know what to say — or whom to vote for.
[…] A handful of Republicans in competitive reelection races sound as if they’re holding out hope that their nominee will suddenly become a different one. But that’s wishful thinking. In fact, Trump himself has established that’s most definitely not going to happen:
[…] Their struggles with Trump less than three months before the election mirror the struggles Senate Republicans had with him the spring, when it became clear Trump had a real shot at winning the nomination. It appears that time — and Trump’s nomination — hasn’t made the challenge any easier.
[…] A July Cook Political Report analysis found that of the 45 Republicans in swingy districts (and therefore most likely to be in tough races) just 58 percent have publicly pledged support for Trump, and just 31 percent have endorsed Trump by name. (Because apparently in 2016, there’s a distinction.)
[…] By comparison, David Wasserman of Cook writes, 80 percent of the rest of the House Republicans have said they’ll vote for the nominee, and 62 percent have explicitly said they’ll vote for Trump.
[…] Since House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) endorsed Trump in early June, he’s had to denounce something Trump says roughly once a week.
[…] Things have gotten so bad that as top Republican congressional leaders hint they could lose in November, they’re sending a not-so-subtle message to their donors that they’ll need more help staying afloat in a potential Democratic wave election. We could soon see a world where the Republican Party cuts Trump off from their resources and spends it to try to save candidates like the House lawmakers on this story instead.
[…] And yet Republicans sharing the ballot with Trump have to be careful not to entirely alienate him — or his supporters. Some 68 percent of Republican voters have a favorable view of Trump and 83 percent said they plan to vote for him in November, according to an August Washington Post-ABC News poll
[…] Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), who represents one of the most competitive districts in the country, is walking a fine line with Trump. Earlier this month, Coffman became the first House GOP lawmaker to run a TV ad announcing that he’s no fan of his party’s nominee: “Honestly, I don’t care for him much.” But Coffman hasn’t explicitly denounced Trump either.
[…] “It’s hard for me to see at this point in time that Trump could change to the extent that I would lend my name to his campaign,” Coffman added. “If [Trump] continues down the path that he continues, I’m not going to support him, I don’t think there’s a question about that.”
[…] There’s no question Trump is continuing down the path he’s on. But it is still very much a question what vulnerable House Republicans are going to do about it.