Even as President Donald Trump’s economic policies create political hardships for congressional Republicans seeking reelection, Trump tends to say that he is a political asset rather than a liability. By contrast, two conservatives recently debated Trump vowing to do more to make the campaign about himself — and one of them expressed disbelief at the other’s agreement with the president.
“If you look at the numbers, the president’s popularity is still around 80 percent among Republican base voters — even higher among the super-voters,” David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser, argued on CNN on Wednesday. “If the game is turnout — and that’s what it usually is in midterms — turning out the base is what matters; that’s when people stay home on the couch. If the game is turnout, and you turn out Republicans, Trump will do that in a lot of places. It’ll hurt him in others. You saw it in Maine, when JD Vance visited and [Sen.] Susan Collins [R-ME] wasn’t standing next to him.”
Marc Short, who used to work for Vice President Mike Pence, slammed Trump’s bogus claim of making himself available to support Republicans against Democrats.
“[He said] ‘it’s going to be the greatest year. He’ll be all over the campaign trail.’ Come on, Dave. He’s not.”
Urban then responded, “That’s true, but I think, to a certain extent, the president doesn’t like to talk about policy victories… He likes to rally, and that’ll help in certain races. It’ll be targeted use — Republicans have a huge money advantage, and that matters in certain races. So we’ll see. I think this notion of a blue tsunami — is a bit of a reach.”
Short disagreed.
“I’m more worried about it,” he said. “The reality is that yes, the Democrats are unpopular, and some of their nominees are quite far to the left. But a midterm is about the party in power — and it’s not just the president, it’s the Republican Senate and House. So I’m far more concerned about their prospects in November.”
Trump has already vowed to hold a midterm convention in order to focus the party on his personal political brand and policy agenda in the hope of winning voters. His chief of staff, Susie Wiles, has similarly argued that the best way for Republicans to overcome their historical midterm disadvantage would be to focus on Trump, despite his approval rating being stuck in the 30s.
Democrat operatives, however, say they expect Trump and his rampant unpopularity to have a negative impact on more centrist voters outside of Republican primaries, and they argue that Trump is doing Dems a favor by smearing himself over the GOP in time for the midterms.
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