Forget about who the Democratic VP pick might be, the Democratic nominee will be running alongside plenty of women as Senate Democrats hope to field female candidates in a total of nine states. Erica Werner reports:
Donald Trump, whose commanding win in Indiana cemented his improbable status as the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is viewed unfavorably by 70 percent of women, according to Gallup. So as discomfited Republican Senate candidates released statements trying to change the topic or have it both ways Wednesday, Democrats made plans to link their largely male opponents to Trump, seeking to win back control of the Senate in November by electing Democratic women from coast to coast.
"I'll tell you as a professional woman, too many women have had to fight Donald Trump's type of sexism and offensive rhetoric their entire lives," said Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, who is challenging Republican Sen. John McCain and released an early ad in February tying the incumbent to Trump.
This is exactly the combustible dynamic Republican operatives had hoped to avoid. You may recall this leaked letter from National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Ward Baker last winter.
Let’s elect an historic number of women to the Senate—please donate $3 to turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.
"Houston, we have a problem," Baker wrote. "Donald Trump has said some wacky things about women. ... We do not want to re-engage the 'war on women' fight, so isolate Trump on this issue by offering a quick condemnation of it."
Katie McGinty, Democrats' Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, said her campaign has “repeatedly” called on GOP challenger Pat Toomey to disavow Trump’s comments about women among other issues but “he’s refused.”
"What we have is a Trump-Toomey ticket."