Republicans have sounded a five-alarm fire and are focused on trying to save Kansas. Yes, Kansas! They have pulled their money from North Carolina’s Senate race, seemingly seeing it as a lost cause, and are pouring it into the Sunflower State. It’s a frenzied attempt save their Senate majority as the battleground map expands, with Democratic Senate candidates leading in Texas, Alaska and Ohio, tied in Kansas and within a point in Iowa—all red states with Republican-held Senate seats. In the House, Republicans are also now in trouble in blood-red districts. Even though the GOP has a money advantage, this is exactly what the Democrats want to see—forcing Republicans to spend that money in places they thought were safe.
Trump, meanwhile, is campaigning in deep-red states, as I wrote about last week, wanting to see big, adoring crowds rather than actually help Republicans in places where they’re in trouble. Of course, I don’t think Trump helps Republicans in those places and only helps his opponents. The White House has some of those districts on the schedule, and we’ll see exactly how it plays out. But if Trump’s red-state tour is about assuaging his ego, he had a big disappointment in deep-red Alabama, where there were empty seats in the arena.
There was a lot of speculation that Justice Samuel Alito would retire before the end of this year, allowing Trump to put another conservative on the Court with Republicans in control of the Senate. Alito apparently considered retiring but decided against it, even as momentum for Democrats in Senate races was building. Now he says he will consider retiring again next year. If Democrats take the Senate, that could make it much more difficult for Trump to put another far-right justice in place. And it makes me think Alito may stay, clinging to the power he covets, perhaps for years.