Can an unpopular US president save his party?
Trump is betting big that turning the midterm elections into a referendum on himself is a winning strategy. That is not certain.
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Donald Trump’s plunging popularity has rattled Republicans, who fear his voters will sit out the coming elections.
PHOTO: HAIYUN JIANG/NYTIMES
An unpopular US president is ordinarily an encumbrance to his party. Candidates running under the same banner advisedly keep their distance. After all, little good can come from inviting voters to endorse the record of a White House they have come to dislike. It’s better to localise; to talk about repairing roads, updating schools and the candidate’s deep community ties.
Contrary to this line of conventional wisdom, the Republican Party under President Donald Trump seems to expect no blowback from asking voters to treat the Nov 3 midterm elections as a referendum on a man they have soured on. The seemingly counterintuitive bet is that this is the right moment to go Trump-first.