Hillary holds fire on GOP

In recent days, the candidate and her aides have spoken more and more about down-ballot Democrats and the party’s chances of wresting back control of the Senate. But Clinton has yet to embrace a sharp message tying Trump to the party — one that some Democrats, including officials at the Democratic National Committee, hoped to hear from the start of the general.

The campaign’s attempt to “disaggregate” Trump from the GOP, they worried, might let the rest of Republicans on the ticket “off the hook” and undermine a message Democrats had already been trying to drive for years about an increasingly extreme Republican Party.

“I’ve heard a lot of bitching from Democratic officials and candidates in key states that the Clinton campaign’s strategy to triage the GOP establishment from Trump has been downright unhelpful,” said Lis Smith, a Democratic operative who helped lead Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign last year.

Pollsters and strategists said Clinton’s message throughout the general election might have even helped created a consequence-free environment for Republicans. In battleground states, voters see establishment candidates like Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania as a “different kind of Republican” than Trump, according to a series of YouGov-CBS News polls. And a recent survey by USA Today and Suffolk University found that 52% of people who’ve chosen to back Clinton are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to split the ticket when they vote next month.