South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds seems to have stripped mentions of President Donald Trump from his campaign’s website, The Washington Sun reported, adding him to a list of Republicans quietly putting space between themselves and the president.
A saved copy of the page shows that the text under the site’s banner used to say Trump had endorsed Rounds. That line isn’t on the live homepage anymore. A big banner announcing the Trump endorsement has also disappeared from the bottom of the page, and Trump references have been removed from several spots on his issues page.
This follows an apparent move by Rep. Byron Donalds, currently running for governor of Florida, to remove Trump references from his site too, a move that reportedly infuriated the president.
The timing matches a tougher race than expected. Recent polling shows independent Brian Bengs within reach, a worrying sign for Republicans in a safe-looking state. Democrats have taken this approach in several GOP stronghold states in the Great Plains, also getting behind independent candidates in Idaho and Nebraska without fielding candidates of their own; in Montana, Democratic candidate Alani Bankhead has refused to step aside for independent Seth Bodnar, creating a three-way race.
Other Republicans are going the opposite direction. In South Carolina, Sen. Darline Graham used the race’s only debate against Democrat Annie Andrews to back the Iran war and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, subjects other embattled Republicans are trying to avoid. Her spokesperson, T.W. Arrighi, said she won’t be looking to put distance between herself and Trump.
“South Carolina is still Trump Country,” Arrighi said.
Andrews is running on lowering costs and casting herself as an independent-minded Democrat. She opposes Medicare for All, bristled at Graham’s attempt to link her to socialism, and said she doesn’t want any national Democrats coming to South Carolina to campaign with her.
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