The Republican National Convention kicked off Monday with a host of state delegation meetings and parties, and state Republican leaders are being more welcoming than expected to Donald Trump’s impending nomination.
Most, like the Illinois GOP coalition, which is fighting to hold on to a Senate seat held by Trump detractor Sen. Mark Kirk, openly embraced the call to Make America Great Again.
Some, like Rep. Paul Ryan, who is currently running to maintain his house seat against a Trump acolyte, steered clear of even mentioning Trump’s name in their morning remarks.
Later, he added: “I know it was a tough primary, but this is a binary choice,” he told Pennsylvania’s delegation. “It is Trump or Clinton. That’s your choice.”
He was then, in another show of acquiescence to the Republican National Committee, forced to hold a Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel, though he’s a Green Bay Packers fan.
The Trump love is somewhat surprising, particularly given that state leaders have been worried that The Donald, who is trailing Clinton in his pre-convention polls, would hurt down-ticket races, as larger segments of the population tuned out a candidate with low popularity numbers.
But a new poll of swing states seems to indicate that Republican congressional candidates are faring pretty well. According to Quinnipiac, Florida Republican Marco Rubio is maintaining a strong lead over his Democratic opponent, Alan Grayson, while Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio is running well ahead of his, and Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey is handily winning over Democrat Katie McGinty.
The only state that looks to flip to Democratic? Indiana, home of Trump’s running mate Mike Pence. Thanks to a last-minute decision from former Sen. Evan Bayh, Democrats will likely win back the seat he vacated, which went to Republican Dan Coates.
The reason state Republicans are faring so well could be that big-time Republican donors are bypassing Trump and giving directly to contested campaigns. For example, Florida donor Art Pope, a Koch associate who gave more than a quarter- million dollars to Rubio’s Conservative Solutions PAC, is focusing on Florida’s Senate seat, and completely ignoring the presidential race. A source close to another Republican mega-donor, says that theory is guiding his giving as well.
Even the RNC is having better luck raising money for state-level Republicans. Of the $32 million the RNC brought in in June, only $2.2 million will go to Trump’s presidential campaign. The rest will fund Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates.
That’s good news for Republicans, whose champion deal-maker nominee has all but abandoned down-ticket races. He told reporters last week that major state-level losses aren’t his problem, and that he didn’t “mind being a free agent,” if the Republicans lost the House and Senate.