'It’s going to be a tsunami': Republicans see chances of holding the Senate slipping away due to Trump's screw-ups

According to a report in the Washington Post, Republican campaign analysts are watching any chance of the party holding its majority in the Senate slipping away as they shoulder part of the blame for Donald Trump's coronavirus pandemic that has also crippled the economy.

The Post reports, "In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favor of Democrats: Tout their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters."

Put more succinctly, one Republican strategist closely involved in Senate races lamented, "It is a bleak picture right now all across the map, to be honest with you. This whole conversation is a referendum on Trump, and that is a bad place for Republicans to be. But it’s also not a forever place.”

Add to the polling problems of Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) who both trail badly against their possible Democratic opponents, things are also looking very bad for Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

"Multiple strategists said they believe GOP candidates will recover once the nation — and the presidential campaign — returns to a more normal footing, casting the November elections as a contest between Trump and presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Democratic Senate candidates in the most closely watched races also could be benefiting from a lack of scrutiny and negative ads with the nation’s attention consumed by the pandemic," the report notes. "But a return to normalcy ahead of the elections is far from a given as the death toll continues to rise and economic data paints a grim picture, meaning the president’s handling of the pandemic could be the determining factor not only for his reelection but for Republicans’ ability to hold onto the Senate. In short, as goes Trump, so likely goes the Senate majority."

With Republicans holding a 53-to-47 majority in the Senate, one Republican said that might become a thing of the past after November's election.

“The political environment is not as favorable as it was a few months ago,” the GOP source admitted.

Dogging the Republicans is a large number of seats they have to defend this election cycle.

"Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs this fall, Republicans are defending 23 of them. Strategists from both parties said the key battles for Republicans remain races in North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Maine and, to a lesser extent, Iowa," the Post reports. "Republicans are banking on picking up at least one seat now held by a Democrat — Alabama, where Sen. Doug Jones won a special election in 2017 against a Republican challenger accused of sexual misconduct in the 1970s — but acknowledge they are playing defense in the vast majority of the marquee races."

Explained one GOP analyst: "Everyone’s fortunes are tied to the economy. It’s going to be a tsunami.”

You can read more here.