Top Republicans tell Axios that they’re seeing a surprising and widespread surge in GOP voter enthusiasm, powered largely by support for Brett Kavanaugh and his Supreme Court nomination.

What they’re saying: “The Kavanaugh debate has dropped a political grenade into the middle of an electorate that had been largely locked in Democrats’ favor for the past six months,” said Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Pointing to Montana, Indiana, West Virginia, Missouri and Tennessee, Holmes added: “[P]rivate polling shows the enthusiasm shift is … unmistakable in the red states that will determine control of the Senate.”…

Be smart: Steven Law — a former McConnell chief of staff who runs the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC — warned that hard data is limited so far. But he said “a broad bitstream of calls, emails, cabbie conversations and other inputs from non-D.C. sources … suggest a strongly negative reaction that is building far beyond the Beltway to where the Democrats and the media have taken this.”