Can Republicans salvage their congressional majorities in the Year of Trump? Each day brings conflicting evidence. Donald Trump’s stalling poll numbers are depressing performance for Republican Senate candidates in swing states like Nevada and Florida, and some are predicting big losses for the GOP in the Senate. On top of that, Democrats even smell blood in House races. On the other hand, incumbents like Kelly Ayotte and Barbara Comstock remain in the hunt in difficult races, and the latest news that Obamacare premiums are going up 25 percent as open enrollment begins gives the GOP a great talking point for swing voters not thrilled with the idea of President Hillary Clinton.
The biggest drag for Republicans is their presidential nominee, who is likely to lose and seems to have given up on the race, but there’s a lesson in recent political history Republicans might learn from. As David Grann wrote in THE WEEKLY STANDARD in 1996, the Republican National Committee and its chairman, future Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, withheld their fire for much of the campaign, playing wait-and-see on both the presidential and congressional levels. Here’s Grann on Barbour:
