GOP BETS AGONIZE ON WHETHER TO BACK, OR DUMP, TRUMP

President Donald Trump is hitting the road again, hoping that his mismanagement of the pandemic, his contempt for protesters who demand reform in the police forces and the loss of US prestige and leadership on the world stage would not matter to the electorate and his Republican allies are thinking whether it is politically wise to join him as he sinks in  39% percent approval rate among the American people.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina thinks he has to be with Trump, along with Montana GOP Sen. Steve Daines, and both are battling strong Democratic contenders. A spokesperson said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the reelection fight of her life, “was at work in Washington” recently as Trump visited her state to open a marine conservation area to commercial fishing. The Senate wasn’t in session that day and the biggest newspaper in Maine told Trump curtly that he was not welcome in the whitest of all US states.

“Trump’s divisive law-and-order response to protests against police killings of African Americans, the untamed coronavirus pandemic and the worst economy in decades have wounded him. His job approval rating dipped to a dangerously low 39% in the latest Gallup poll,” wrote Alan Fram and Jonathan Lemire for the Associated Press (AP) on June 15, 2020.

That’s jeopardized his November reelection, endangered the GOP’s Senate control and made a Republican House takeover highly unlikely. It’s also left nervous Republicans debating whether congressional candidates in tight races should link hands with him or create distance. Other Republicans face tougher choices. Tillis, Collins, and Sens. Cory Gardner in Colorado and Martha McSally in Arizona are from states Trump could well lose.