Democrats running on Donald Trump's coattails

Recently, Pennsylvania Democratic senator Bob Casey ran an ad boasting, “Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA,” several other Democratic senators in tight races are running commercials that tout their ability to work with Donald Trump.

In Ohio, Democratic senator Sherrod Brown boasts in a new ad, “I’ve worked with presidents of both parties to do what’s best for our state.”

Like Casey, Sherrod Brown is wildly exaggerating his willingness to reach across the aisle and deviate from his party’s orthodoxy; he voted with the Biden administration’s position 98.5 percent of the time. But, for what it’s worth, he did vote with the Trump administration’s position 25 percent of the time.

Then there’s Wisconsin Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin; her new ad boasts, ‘Tammy Baldwin got President Trump to sign her Made in America bill.”

Baldwin voted with the Biden administration’s position 95.5 percent of the time, and voted with the Trump administration’s position 22.7 percent of the time.

In Michigan, Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is running for the Senate seat of the retiring Debbie Stabenow; a the end of August, her campaign started running an ad featuring the congresswoman saying, “I’ve been obsessed with lowering drug costs, passing the laws that allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. And that’s why I wrote a law, signed by President Trump, forcing drug companies to show their actual prices.”

In the House, Slotkin voted with the Biden administration’s position a perfect 100 percent of the time. Trump administration’s position 6.5 percent of the time.

Now, none of these ads are saying Donald Trump is terrific. But there is something a little odd about progressive columnists declaring “we’re on the verge of a total Nazi takeover of the U.S. government,” and “if elected, Trump would turn America into a racist, authoritarian regime where facts don’t matter,” while key Democratic senators are touting their ability to work with President Fascist Racist Monster. And you notice these senators aren’t choosing to tell voters about how well they work with Vice President Kamala Harris.

No line ends up in a campaign commercial by accident. These senators want wavering voters to know they can get things done, even if Donald Trump is president again. Which is an acknowledgement that they think Trump could win the presidency, and in all of these cases, he could well win their state (Trump is just about certain to win Ohio handily). Public polling shows the races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan looking really close. It is safe to assume the internal polls of Casey, Baldwin, and Slotkin show the same.