Secretary Clinton’s New Hampshire Disaster Rocks Democratic Senate Contests
Secretary Hillary Clinton’s landslide loss in New Hampshire to avowed socialist Bernie Sanders does not simply mean that the Democratic president primary is destined to be a raucous contest with no end in sight. Tuesday’s results, which would have been unimaginable just months ago, will reverberate down the ballot and threaten entrenched establishment Democrats running for senate who have allied themselves with Clinton in a series of key swing states.
Senate races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Florida feature primary contests pitting establishment candidates against grassroots insurgents, setting up scenarios in which a challenger could be buoyed by Bern-mentum and the frontrunner pulled down by Clinton’s tanking honest and trustworthy rating, a category she lost to Sanders by over 80 points in New Hampshire. Additionally, contests in New Hampshire and Colorado have presumptive Democratic nominees closely tied to an increasingly unpopular Clinton.
These are the states where Democrats’ senate prospects are most adversely impacted by Clinton’s devastating New Hampshire loss:
Pennsylvania — The Keystone State’s three-way primary features the only senate candidate who has formally endorsed Bernie Sanders, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, who has been pulling his primary opponents to the left as they scramble to appeal to primary voters. Former Bill Clinton administration staffer Katie McGinty, backed by national Democrats, has endorsed Clinton and shares key vulnerabilities, such as lack of a coherent campaign message and lingering ethical controversies. Clinton’s troubles could conceivably weigh down establishment favorite McGinty and provide an opening for rank-and-file favorite, former Congressman Joe Sestak, to play the “outsider.”
Ohio — Former Governor Ted Strickland is more closely tied to Clinton than any other candidate. He was a top surrogate for her in 2008 and the two traded endorsements early in the 2016 cycle. In the interim, Strickland ran Ohio into the ground and did a stint at an ultra-liberal Washington think tank, and is currently sharing Clinton’s struggle to appeal to grassroots Democrats put off by his pro-gun rights record. His youthful primary rival, P.G. Sittenfeld, who has conspicuously kept his distance from Clinton, has capitalized on Strickland’s lack of liberal purity and made his past positions a fixture in the headlines.
Illinois — The contentious primary fight between Rep. Tammy Duckworth and former Urban League head Andrea Zopp pits Chicago-based Obama allies against each other, but Clinton has clearly come down on Duckworth’s side, endorsing her over the summer. In the months since, Duckworth’s once-solid frontrunner status has suffered amid criticism she doesn’t have a compelling message and lacks presence on the campaign trail, and has been forced to the left by Zopp and her activist backers (sound familiar?).
Florida — Rep. Patrick Murphy, already plagued by problems on the left as a former Republican with a moderate record, was so eager to curry Clinton’s favor that he apparently tipped off reporters about her praising him at a private event in October. Murphy’s grassroots-fueled primary opponent, Alan Grayson, has walked a razor’s edge on Clinton vs. Sanders, not endorsing but calling Sanders “a national treasure” and frequently invoking him in fundraising emails. If Murphy’s record alone isn’t enough to turn off the liberal base, his litany of shady campaign finance scandals should do the trick.
New Hampshire — The Washington Post’s Chris Cilizza said it best when he listed Governor Maggie Hassan as among the “losers” of the New Hampshire primary, writing that her marquee endorsement of Clinton “Didn’t matter. Like, at all.” Hassan’s endorsement was touted as a game changer by the Clinton campaign and pundits, and Clinton’s utter rout indicates that Hassan is unable to rally her base, and faces a real problem with the tens of thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters she needs on her side in order to be competitive in her senate race.
Colorado — Hillary Clinton may be the only politician Coloradans like less than Senator Michael Bennet — the latest polling had her approval rating at 31 percent, compared to 37 percent for Bennet. Yet he still joined Clinton’s Colorado leadership council and Governor John Hickenlooper was caught on video saying Bennet needs Clinton’s “coattails.” In a state that is seriously Feeling The Bern, Bennet and Clinton’s support for each other feels like mutually assured destruction.
