Donald Trump isn’t just getting in the way of a Senate Trumpcare deal. He’s doing absolutely no favors to Republican efforts to strengthen their hold on the Senate in 2018, when they have a favorable map and should be able to perform well. A Trump-associated Super PAC took aim at Nevada’s Dean Heller, one of the few vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election in 2018, but that’s not all.
In Alabama, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants the Republican National Committee to support recently appointed Sen. Luther Strange in a contested primary, but the funding hasn’t come and he isn’t getting any answers, even after going straight to the White House to ask for it. But that’s not all:
In Arizona, where Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a Trump critic, is facing a difficult reelection, Trump-fueled primary worries are intensifying. Prior to the 2016 election, Trump vented openly about Flake’s criticism of him — at one point, backstage before a campaign rally in Arizona, telling top aides animatedly that he wanted to find a Republican opponent to challenge the senator in 2018, according to two people familiar with the exchange. The administration’s anger at Flake has flared anew amid his criticism of the president’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.
Flake has already drawn a Trump-friendly primary opponent in former state Sen. Kelli Ward, and two other allies of the president — Trump 2016 campaign COO Jeff DeWit and former state GOP chair Robert Graham — could also try to unseat him.
Trump has also made it harder for Republicans to target vulnerable Democratic incumbents. He appointed the top Republican prospect to challenge Montana Sen. Jon Tester to his cabinet, leaving McConnell scrounging for recruits, and ignored McConnell’s pleas to appoint the two most vulnerable Democrats—North Dakota’s Heidi Manchin and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin—to the cabinet, which would have made their seats almost certain Republican pick-ups.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2sWY7tK
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