With President Joe Biden's approval rating stuck in the low 40s, Republican Senate candidates should in theory be having an easy time with raising money and putting their Democratic rivals on the defensive.
However, as Politico's Playbook notes, this has not been the case, as several Trump-backed Republican Senate candidates have struggled to gain traction in what should be a favorable political environment.
"In Pennsylvania, a ferocious Democratic campaign to paint Mehmet Oz as an out-of-touch carpetbagger has left him trailing in multiple polls," Playbook notes. "Herschel Walker may be a Georgia Bulldogs legend, but key voters appear to be doubting him after a series of gaffes and abuse allegations. The backing of Silicon Valley titan Peter Thiel hasn't yet been enough to sell Blake Masters' sharp-edged conservatism to Arizona voters."
Oz has been performing particularly poorly against Democratic rival John Fetterman, as several polls have come out showing him trailing by double-digit margins.
David Bergstein of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee tells Politico that "Senate campaigns are candidate-versus-candidate battles" and that "right now, the Republican roster of recruits, it's looking like a bunch of rotten crudités."
The reference to "crudités" is a shot at Oz's already-infamous campaign video shot inside a grocery store in which he complained that Biden was to blame for the high price of crudités, which Fetterman was quick to point out are referred to as "veggie trays" in Pennsylvania.
