In his attempt to maintain control of the U.S. Senate and send a Republican to the White House this year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is walking an awkward line when talking about presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, McConnell was asked if Trump would drag down Republican candidates for Senate during the November general election.
"I think we don't know yet. What I do think is that Senate races are big enough to where you can paint your own picture. And all of our candidates are going to be in a good position to run,"
Trump has strayed from the GOP platform on abortion, saying he’s in favor of allowing the procedure in situations of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is threatened.
He’s also pushed for extreme positions like barring Muslims from entering the U.S. and deporting all illegal immigrants.
That has some Republicans worried that he’ll be too different from the party’s candidates farther down the ballot.
UK Political Science professor Steve Voss says Trump both energizes new voters and disenfranchises established ones.
“He’s offending a lot of voters in the middle that might have supported the GOP and yet he’s not doing it in the way that, say, a Ted Cruz would have done by stating a very clear, stark ideological message," Voss said.
Voss says that Trump is “extreme” on some issues but “not notably conservative” when it comes to others.
Republicans are defending 24 of their 54 seats in the Senate.
