Republican Senate campaigns got a jolt of good news as the Chicago Tribune reported that former President Barack Obama would be hitting the campaign trail more often in 2018.
“He’ll ‘continue to be politically active in 2018, with more endorsements and more campaigning,’ his spokeswoman Katie Hill said.”
The news had to startle Democratic incumbents like Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill and Mexico Joe Donnelly who are fighting uphill reelection battles in states where an Obama endorsement is akin to a kiss of death. As these red state Democrats fight their hardest to distance themselves from the disastrous Obama years, a visit from the former president is about the last thing they need. But would they have the guts to turn down a visit from Obama? Or would they grudgingly welcome him to their states for a campaign stop?
“While liberals in Washington look back on the Obama years as their glory days, that sentiment is not shared by voters in the states where Democrats are defending Senate seats in 2018,” said NRSC Communications Director Katie Martin. “President Obama’s return to the campaign trail will only remind red state voters that their Democrat Senators spent eight years propping up the disastrous Obama agenda.”