“The most significant thing the party can do is not nominate Trump and send a very strong message that as a party, we reject somebody who uses very sexist and misogynistic rhetoric,” says Katie Packer, a former deputy campaign manager for Romney’s presidential bid and currently the chairwoman of the anti-Trump group Our Principles PAC. “Should he become the nominee, it’s going to be important for our party’s leaders to hold him at arm’s length,” Packer says. “I don’t believe there is anything Donald Trump can do to fix that problem [among women]. It’s so baked into the cake.”

GOP strategists acknowledge the troubles Republican candidates will face with various constituencies if Trump is at the top of the ticket, and the difficulty they’ll have distancing themselves from the standard-bearer in a general election in which the presidential candidate typically drives turnout. But they also believe down-ballot GOP candidates this cycle can be successful in drawing contrasts because Trump is unconventional. “Trump, in a lot of ways, is a bigger brand than the Republican Party, so I think there’s an ability to say, ‘I’m not a Trump Republican,’” says Packer…

Del Percio says it will be up to Trump to dig himself out of the hole he’s created when it comes to various groups of women. But Republican candidates down the ballot can help themselves by openly disavowing his past comments. “If you’re Kelly Ayotte or Rob Portman, you can buy into the populist argument to an extent, but you can also really say that Donald Trump is far from holding Republican values,” she said, referring to the senators from New Hampshire and Ohio, respectively, who are up for re-election in battleground states.