Democrats Are Making Mitch McConnell The Star Of Senate Race Advertising

Democratic and liberal groups in three states with vulnerable Republican senators are running television and digital ads linking them to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell , the GOPs increasingly unpopular leader in the Senate .

The spots are mirror images of ads Republicans deployed for years linking House Democrats to now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The tactic shows how, even in an era where hatred of President Donald Trump holds together an unwieldy Democratic coalition, McConnell has still emerged as a uniquely unpopular villain in U.S. politics.

McConnell has been at the center of the obstruction and special interest deals that have broken the Senate for years, but under Donald Trump hes come under a bright national spotlight that has turned his obstruction and corruption into a serious problem for Republican senators, said Joshua Karp, a Democratic strategist working for the progressive group Fix Our Senate. Across the map, theyre facing serious consequences for supporting him.

Its unclear, at least for now, if anti-McConnell messaging can actually sway independent voters and become a central feature of the battle for the Senate. Polling indicates that McConnell is clearly disliked but lacks universal name identification. Republicans remain skeptical that McConnell will become a central villain for anyone other than committed Democratic partisans.

Most of the ads so far have not come from the top-funded Democratic Senate groups the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) or Senate Majority PAC, both of which are controlled by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his allies.

But Democratic strategists still believe McConnell can serve a role that Trump cannot: While tying Republicans to Trump links them to chaos and racism, tying the same politicians to a powerful career politician such as McConnell links them to a Washington that many Americans see as corrupt and unaccountable.

At the same time, the partys plan to use McConnell as a boogeyman in states like Iowa, Texas and Georgia where Trump remained popular has run into an unexpected development: Trumps recent tumble in polling means there are relatively few places on the Senate map where attacking him might backfire.

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