Senate Republicans are leaning heavily on a group of former Democrats in key races to preserve their narrow majority this fall.
Three former Democrats — Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Mike Braun, the new GOP Senate nominee in Indiana, and Kevin Nicholson, a top candidate for the GOP nomination in Wisconsin — could make or break Republicans’ chances in November as they look to go on the offensive against the Democrats.
Republicans are bullish about these candidates’ chances, particularly Hyde-Smith and Braun, citing their ability to talk about the issues that will resonate with the voters.
“These are all people who understand the issues that everyday Americans care about. In most cases, those are pocketbook issues. They’re economic issues,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who recently campaigned for Hyde-Smith in Mississippi recently. “I think all these candidates are candidates that are going to be very much in sync with their voters and their constituencies, and I think very able to deliver a positive, free market message that will attract a lot of voters in November.”
All the three of these Republican candidates voted in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary but each faces a vastly different route to possible victory in November.
Braun is set to feature in one of the biggest races in America this fall against Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., a race into which President Trump has already intervened.
Hyde-Smith, who replaced former Sen. Thad Cochran in April, will square off against Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel and Democratic former Rep. Mike Espy on Nov. 6, with the top two facing off in later November.
Meanwhile, Nicholson, a businessman and former Marine, is in a tough primary fight against state Sen. Leah Vukmir, who just wrapped up the Wisconsin GOP’s nomination. The primary election is set for August 14, with the winner taking on Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., in November.
While party-switching is not a new phenomenon, it hasn’t been a common occurrence in recent years by GOP Senate nominees as party purity was important until Trump, who has financially and electorally supported Democrats, was nominated in 2016. Trump’s past has opened the door for these candidates to combat attacks on their Democratic pasts. When asked Monday what her retort is to attacks on her former party affiliation, Hyde-Smith didn’t hesitate to invoke the commander in chief.
“Well, 20 years ago when I ran, everyone else was [a Democrat],” she said, noting she has been elected to statewide office twice. “And I’ve been a Republican longer than Donald Trump.”
This hasn’t stopped her opponents from making her past affiliation an issue in the campaign. McDaniel has labeled the former state agriculture commissioner a “moderate Democrat” and has tried to frame himself as the only Republican in the race. McDaniel opponents retort that he voted in a Democratic primary back in 2003.
Nicholson also has faced attacks related to his time as president of the College Democrats, with Vukmir saying at a debate last month that more people know about his time as head of the organization than “his track record as a Republican.” Braun, however, has weathered the storm of attacks against his past, having defeated two sitting congressmen last week in the state’s primary.
“You can’t just run from the issue. You’ve got to be able to explain it,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., a former Democrat who won election to the Senate in 2016. He is currently one of three sitting GOP senators who are former Democratic Party members. “Obviously my opponents hit me hard on the issue, but I had a record, even as a Democrat, of being conservative. It was hard for the charges to stick.”
“Sen. Hyde-Smith has a solid conservative record. I wouldn’t pretend to give her advice, but what I did in my state is hit it head-on [and] say, ‘Look — yeah, I used to be a Democrat. So did a lot of Louisianans. I changed and here’s why,'” Kennedy said. “I hit it head on, and I never ran from the issue.”
More than anywhere else, party switching has been most noticeable in the South, which has turned from a Democratic stronghold to a Republican power source over the last 30 years years. Along with Kennedy, who also ran for Senate in 2008, and Hyde-Smith, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., switched parties after the 1994 elections.
“In my state, I didn’t know a Republican growing up,” Shelby noted. “We didn’t have any Republicans in the old Confederacy. Now we have very few Democrats. The whole population changed — it wasn’t just one person.”
These are three of the 14 Senate races Republicans have their eyes on in the fall, including six top-tier contests in states featuring an incumbent Democrat. As Republicans become less confident about their chances to hold onto the House, the Senate may be their saving grace.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” Thune said, adding that Hyde-Smith isn’t, “and neither are we.”
