But if there really were a huge, Trump-at-all-costs constituency, Beruff should be getting some more traction. Republican strategists involved in the race expect Rubio to win the primary comfortably, with around 65 percent of the GOP vote. If that’s the case, was it worth pandering to Trump’s supporters at the expense of possible swing voters in November?
“This is more out of concern in a primary, where base voters aren’t fond of Trump but are so unhappy with the prospect of a Clinton presidency that they’d take it personally if a Republican incumbent repudiated Trump,” said one GOP pollster involved in battleground Senate races. (Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for instance, saw his approval rating with Republicans nosedive after publicly declining to endorse Trump at the GOP convention.)
McCain, who has long antagonized the conservative base in Arizona, has an even more difficult needle to thread. His campaign has spent inordinate time marginalizing his arch-conservative GOP opponent, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, and is expected to win his primary comfortably. But even his allies don’t expect him to win much more than 50 percent of the vote in a three-person primary. He’s been compelled to offer a de facto endorsement of Trump despite the hostility Trump has directed his way.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member