Incumbent presidents typically make frequent campaign appearances to help their party during midterm elections. But that is far from the case this year for campaigning Democrats and President Barack Obama.
In West Virginia, Democratic Senate candidate Natalie Tennant is even running her own Obama attack ads to distance herself from the party’s most prominent member.
The ad responds to the Obama administration’s environmental policies, which have sought to reduce American coal usage through restrictive emissions standards. In the ad, Tennant uses a large red switch to make the White House go dark.
“Where do they think their electricity comes from?” she asks. “You and I know it’s our hardworking West Virginia coal miners that power America.”
She then vows to “stand up to members of both parties who threaten our way of life” and “make sure President Obama gets the message.”
When Tennant appeared on Fox and Friends Tuesday morning, co-host Steve Doocy pressured Tennant, asking if she was “a flip-flopper,” since she had supported Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Tennant pushed back strongly. “He’s not on the ballot … This is about me and Shelley Moore Capito and about West Virginia, because I don’t answer to the president,” she said.
While she might be the most vocal, Tennant is not the first Democrat to retreat from the president this election cycle. Other candidates have refused to appear at fundraisers with him and have pushed back on some of Obama’s policies to try and appeal to moderate voters.
In the political popularity contest, Obama has gone from prom king to eating lunch by himself.
Watch the ad below:
