Democrats are waiting. They’re waiting to see if Paul Broun is the Republican nominee for the Senate in Georgia. They’re waiting to see if challenger Matt Bevin and the Senate Conservatives Fund lacerate Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell sufficiently in Kentucky’s Republican primary to make him vulnerable in the general election against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. They’re waiting to see if Republicans nominate beatable Senate candidates in Alaska, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Colorado.

They’re waiting because they’ve all but given up on holding the Senate in the November midterm elections on their own. Their candidates—especially the four incumbents in states won by Mitt Romney in 2012—are too compromised by their ties to President Obama and their votes for Obamacare. To retain the Senate, Democrats require the help of Republican primary voters. And they may get it.