Trump-led ticket

GOP wrestles with prospect of Trump-led ticket

Democrats smell opportunity as Republicans in House and Senate races consider the once-unthinkable prospect of the billionaire businessman as party nominee.

By Ben Schreckinger and Kevin Robillard

Among the signs waved by Latino, labor and Black Lives Matter protesters outside of Donald Trump’s rally here Wednesday night was one targeting a local congresswoman: “Trump & Comstock: Respect Women,” read a placard hoisted by an organizer for NARAL Pro-Choice.

The Trump phenomenon is increasingly spilling over from the Republican presidential primary it has already upended and into House and Senate races, where Democrats smell opportunity and Republicans are beginning to ponder the once-unthinkable prospect of a 2016 GOP ticket led by the billionaire businessman as nominee.

On Wednesday, a memo surfaced from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that envisioned Trump as the party nominee and advised its candidates to embrace some of Trump’s themes and traits while denouncing some of his “wacky” and politically radioactive comments. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, is stepping up its efforts to tie Republican House candidates to the current frontrunner for their party’s nomination. That includes instructing the committee’s opposition researchers to look for comments made by Republican candidates about immigrants, women and other groups that echo Trump’s rhetoric and can be used to paint them with the same brush, according to a DCCC official.

“Even when House Republicans do not mimic his hateful rhetoric directly, the DCCC advises campaigns to draw comparisons to House Republican incumbents and Donald Trump, because they are part of the same party, with shared principles,” said the official.

The move to Trumpify GOP candidates is already underway. In September, a state representative and prominent Democratic Latino surrogate in Colorado authored an op-ed about an incumbent Republican congressman titled, “Mike Coffman paved the way for anti-Immigrant Donald Trump.” In it, State Rep. Joe Salazar charges that “Coffman is alarmingly similar to Trump.”

Keisy Chavez, 44, the NARAL organizer carrying the sign tying Trump to Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock, whose district lies across the street from the Prince William County Fairgrounds where the businessman held his rally on Wednesday night, said she was inspired by the idea of linking Trump’s newfound pro-life leanings and Comstock’s support for requiring transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions.

She also compared Comstock’s rhetoric on immigration to Trump’s. “They just make comments without taking any precautions,” said Chavez, whose family hails from Peru. “She compared us to FedEx packages.”

Last year, speaking about illegal immigration and border security, Comstock said, “FedEx can track packages coming in here all of the time, we can track people who are coming into the country and we can do that right.”

The Trump and Comstock campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump effect stands to leave an even bigger imprint on the Senate landscape, where many of the most competitive races next year will take place in presidential battleground states.

“The NRSC memo on Donald Trump shows just how big a problem he’s created for Senate Republicans trying to keep their majority – they know Trump could ruin their already slim chances at re-election, but now they are being told they should strive to be more like him,” DSCC communications director Sadie Weiner said. “But embrace him or not, vulnerable Senate Republicans belong to the party of Trump, and no memo can change the fact that his offensive statements and dangerous policies have become the Republican standard. At the end of the day, Republican Senate candidates will be left to answer for Trump whether they like it or not.”

In the spring and summer, when many believed Trump was a passing craze, numerous Republican candidates spoke favorably of the billionaire – quotes Democrats will be eager to resurrect in television advertising and messaging, regardless of whether he wins the nomination or flames out.

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte held a private, one-on-one meeting with Trump in April. A few months later, Trump said he would consider Ayotte as a vice-presidential pick, calling her “tremendous.” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman also said he talked to Trump about trade issues, an area where “we tend to agree a lot.” Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has compared himself to Trump, and said Trump reminded him of “what’s appealing about my candidacy here in Wisconsin.” Trump endorsed Rep. Ron DeSantis, who’s running for the GOP Senate nod in Florida, when he first ran for Congress and donated to his campaign two years later. A spokesman for Rep. David Jolly, another Florida GOP Senate prospect, said the congressman was “honored” when Trump copied a health care policy proposal from Jolly.

Democrats have already begun adjusting their rhetoric with Trump in mind. After Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk released an ad attacking Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth for supporting allowing Syrian refugees into the United States, a Duckworth spokesman fired back with a statement linking the moderate Republican to the polarizing businessman.

“Like Donald Trump, he’s appealing to base xenophobia, sowing fear of refugees in the midst of one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time,” Duckworth spokesman Matt McGrath said. “His ad is false, and he knows it, but worse yet it appeals exclusively to fear and the lowest common denominator. He should be ashamed. Illinois deserves better.”

The NRSC memo, written by Ward Baker, the committee's executive director, seeks to identify the traits GOP Senate candidates should emulate – and the aspects of Trump’s political persona that could imperil their campaigns.


“Trump has risen because voters see him as authentic, independent, direct, firm, --- and believe he can’t be bought. These are the same character traits our candidates should be advancing in 2016,” Baker writes. “That’s Trump lesson #1.”

At the same time, Baker warns: “We need not be tied to him so closely that we have to engage in permanent cleanup or distancing maneuvers” the next time Trump insults women or immigrants.”

Following the key portion of Baker’s advice – embracing Trump’s stance as honest-speaking outsider -- will be easier for some candidates than others. Johnson, a millionaire businessman who self-funded his 2010 run, could adopt much of Trump’s posture. But Portman, who has raised more than $11 million for his Senate bid and has been in Washington, D.C. since 1993, may have trouble recasting himself as outsider.

One Republican candidate on the 2016 ballot has already positioned himself as an anti-Trump. Arizona Sen. John McCain, facing a challenge from Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, has been in multiple scraps with Trump over immigration, McCain’s war service and other matters. McCain has also been frank about the potential risk with Trump as the party nominee.

“Of course I worry,” McCain said Wednesday morning at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “All of us have to worry about the viability of the top of the ticket.”