WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is hitting the road again. And while a campaign event with a president who draws TV cameras and raucous crowds can be gold for down-ballot candidates, these days its value can be debatable.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, facing a competitive North Carolina reelection contest, “is looking forward to campaigning” with Trump, Tillis’ spokesperson said. GOP Sen. Steve Daines tweeted, “Montana can’t wait to have you back, Mr. President!” after Trump promised to help him battle a strong Democratic challenger.
Yet a spokesperson said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the reelection fight of her life in a state Trump lost narrowly in 2016, “was at work in Washington” recently as Trump visited Maine to open a marine conservation area to commercial fishing. The Senate wasn’t in session that day.
And while GOP Senate candidate John James appeared with Trump in May in Michigan, where polls have trended against the president, James demurred when asked about his 2017 comment that he backs Trump “2,000%.” James said he supports Trump, adding, “I’m looking forward to running my own race, being my own man.”
Trump is the GOP’s unrivaled beast, commanding the unswerving fealty of nearly all its voters. While some Republican candidates yanked their support late in his 2016 campaign after a decade-old video showed him boasting about groping women, he’s since proved that crossing him can be politically fatal.