With Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz seemingly positioned to fight it out for the Republican presidential nomination, Democrats are now poised to take over the Senate in November.
Up to this point, the burden of proof has been on Democrats to demonstrate that they can oust four or five Republican senators and win control of the chamber. But now, with Republicans in disarray and the party flirting with selecting a weak general election nominee, the benefit of the doubt has shifted away from the GOP and to the Democrats.
The burden is on Republican strategists and nominees to prove that they can hold the Senate majority even in light of the party’s civil war.
Some suggest that Republican down-ballot candidates might be able to retain their seats even if the top of the ticket performs poorly, primarily by localizing their races. That conclusion seems more than a bit naïve given what happened in 1964, 1972 and 1980.
It was one thing for Democrat Heidi Heitkamp to eke out a narrow North Dakota Senate victory even when Republican Mitt Romney was carrying the state in 2012. But the situation would be dramatically worse for a Republican running for re-election in a swing state when his or her party is in the middle of a political civil war and with a controversial, radioactive nominee at the top of the ticket.
I think this article really hits it on the nose.
We are currently watching what could ultimately be the end of the national Republican party but that might not necessarily damage their ability to elect conservatives in state and local elections.
At least no yet.
However as the article states, in this election cycle there is so much infighting that there might no be enough ammunition left to fight off challenges from Democrats.
Which is just another reason to support Hillary's campaign in my opinion.
let's face it folks Hillary and Bill WERE the Democratic party before Barack Obama came along, and they have deep, deep connections all throughout the party reaching even into local districts.
If the Clintons offer their coattails to Democrats running for office, they could usher in one of the biggest turnover is modern political history.
Source http://ift.tt/223fFBd
