GOP faces wrenching call: Running with or away from Trump
The election outcome Tuesday exacerbated tensions within the party over how candidates should position themselves vis-à-vis the president.
By ALEX ISENSTADT
11/08/2017 07:14 PM EST
Sweeping losses in Tuesday’s elections have exacerbated a growing rift inside the GOP over whether the party’s candidates should embrace President Donald Trump in next year’s midterms — or make a clean break.
With Trump’s approval ratings cratering in swing states across the country, some senior party strategists are imploring lawmakers to abandon the president. Others argue that shunning Trump and his populist base is simply out of the question and that anything other than a full embrace of the president would spell electoral disaster.
In the Virginia gubernatorial race, Republican Ed Gillespie tried to have it both ways — with disastrous consequences. Gillespie, who privately agonized about the degree to which Trump should be involved in the contest, refused to campaign with the president. But at the same time, he trumpeted Trump’s culture war issues in ads.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/08/virginia-trump-republicans-2018-244721
