MILWAUKEE — Sen. JD Vance’s selection as Donald Trump’s running mate has Republicans considering whether the freshman Ohio senator can help them close the gap between Senate GOP candidates and the top of the ticket.
Despite Trump’s narrow leads over President Joe Biden in battleground states, the Republican Senate candidates in those states are often running behind the Democratic incumbent. This is especially glaring in Rust Belt states, according to public polls.
Republican senators and candidates hosted Vance here in Milwaukee on Thursday for the first time since he was announced as Trump’s vice presidential nominee.
Many of them emerged from the gathering with a sense of confidence that Vance — a Trump loyalist whose populist views conflict with the party’s historical positions — could be an asset in those Senate races.
“I would think that anyone running for the Senate as a Republican that was here today would love for Sen. Vance to come to their state to campaign with them,” Senate GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso, who hosted the meeting, told us afterward.
We spotted nearly all of the GOP challengers from battleground states walking into the meeting. The theory is that many of them, especially those in the Midwest, could benefit from Vance because of the Ohio Republican’s personal story, as documented in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Vance’s first stop for a Senate candidate will be next week in Fort Wayne, Ind., according to Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), that state’s likely next senator.
“We’re gonna see a lot of JD Vance on the campaign trail,” said Banks, a close Vance ally and friend.
Yet deep-red Indiana was never a worry for Republicans. The real question is whether Vance and Trump can help candidates like Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, who a recent poll showed trailing Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) by double digits even as Trump is slightly ahead of Biden.
To be sure, Vance is still far from a household name, and being a face of the MAGA movement might not be helpful in some of the battleground states. Democratic incumbents also have found some success in differentiating themselves from the national party and carving out their own brands.
But Senate Republicans, dreaming of big gains in November, are eager to find ways to get their candidates’ numbers closer to Trump’s.
