DEMS/POLITICS: “Senate Democrats, against all odds just a few months ago, can see a path that could lead them back to power, with one hitch—the road to a Democratic Senate majority runs through Trump Country.
To win, Democrats must defend 10 Senate seats they hold in states President Donald Trump won in 2016, plus take at least two seats now held by Republicans. In these states, the party faces a tricky balance act. It must appeal to independents and centrist Republicans, who typically decide elections in these states, without alienating energized Democrats whose anti-Trump energy has invigorated the party.
Arizona has one of the GOP seats Democrats want, the one being vacated by Sen. Jeff Flake, and here the tensions are on full display. At a recent gathering of Democratic activists in Phoenix, one party leader estimated that half of those in the room were angry with Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the party’s expected nominee, in part because she has consistently voted for Trump priorities…
Trump-state Senate Democratic incumbents on the ballot this year in Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia bucked their party’s leadership on issues such as immigration and confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Such independence may be paying off: West Virginians polled by a GOP group found more than 60% of that state’s likely Republican primary voters approved of their Democratic senator, Joe Manchin.”
-Reid J. Epstein, “Can a Onetime Nader-Supporting ‘Bomb Thrower’ Win Arizona’s Senate Seat? Democrats Hope So,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 5, 2018 11:22am