“Republicans are struggling to get their top recruits for Senate to actually take the plunge — and no wonder. No politician wants to hitch their political fate to the Senate GOP’s devastating health care bill that is unpopular in every state in the country. They’d rather collect corporate campaign checks and hope things get better. Here’s news for Republican hopefuls: this is just the beginning of the horrible headlines you’ll be running against,” said American Bridge spokesperson Joshua Karp.
Roll Call: Why House Members Aren’t Rushing to Announce for Senate
By Simone Pathe | June 18, 2017
- “It’s no secret that a handful of House members are mulling bids for the Senate next year,” but most “are in no rush to officially announce their Senate campaigns.”
- “Sixteen months is a long time to face the barrage of attacks that comes with running statewide.”
- “And in an uncertain political environment, candidates may be taking longer to test the waters.”
- “Here’s the well-known, but little-talked-about, secret: As long as these lawmakers are House members, and not Senate candidates, they often have access to more of that corporate PAC money.”
- “Nowhere could a member-on-member primary be a more likely reality than in Indiana, where GOP Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita have been sparring out in the open for months. But neither has officially announced his campaign.”
- West Virginia Rep. Evan Jenkins “is likely to face a contentious primary against a statewide-elected official before he gets the chance to challenge Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III.”
Read the full story here.
Published: Jun 19, 2017