Kavanaugh process fueling GOP passion ahead of election

WASHINGTON — As the Senate hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh cleaved the coun- try, Ron DeSantis, the Repub- lican candidate for governor of Florida, stayed mostly out of the fray — uncharacteristic reticence for a politician who usually relishes partisan battles.

B ut by last weekend, DeSantis had changed his tune.

“These people really debase the Senate,” he said of Democrats during a campaign rally soon after the Senate voted, largely along party lines, to confirm the Supreme Court’s newest jus- tice. “What they did was a disgrace.”

That line of attack, honed by Republican senators to help shield Kavanaugh from sexual assault allegations, and then picked up by Senate candidates in tight races, is now catching fire across the polit- ical landscape in competi- tive contests for governorships, the House of Representatives and other positions that had nothing to do with the confirmation process. If many Republicans were not sure, initially, how to han- dle the accusations against Kavanaugh, some are now determined to harness outrage among their core voters and make him an issue in races up and down the ballot to counter the energy on the left.

In several of the country’s tightest and most closely watched midterm contests, the critical goal now is to find the right words and messages to ensure that anger over Kavanaugh remains a potent motivating factor from now until Election Day. Many Republicans believe that, by portraying him as the victim of political sabotage, they will have one more argument to help unify an otherwise frac- tured party anxious about keeping control of the House and Senate.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Ca- lif., who is defending his seat while under indictment on corruption-related charges, praised the 50-48 Senate vote as he railed against “the despicable lengths the radical left will go to bully, intimidate and shout down those with whom they disagree.”

Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, facing a more competitive than usual fight for re-elec- tion to his Houston-area seat, attacked the “vicious partisan attempts to destroy a man over political differences.”

And the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, boasted Monday in an interview with Fox News that the confirmation battle had led to a large uptick in fundraising. At the same time, he asked people to get on the group’s website and donate more.

The Kavanaugh fight is expected to do more to help Senate Republican candi- dates than those for swing House seats, which are largely being fought in the suburbs over local issues and, in some cases, lack critical masses of conservative voters. What’s more, attacking Democrats with indignation is not a tactic universally embraced within the party, reflecting a divide over how Republicans believe they should approach the delicate questions that the Kavanaugh confirmation has raised, about gender equality, mistreatment of women and sexual assault.

As an example of this Republican split, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is seeking a third term, has largely avoided mentioning the issue, while the party’s nominee for Senate there, Leah Vukmir, has repeat- edly invoked it against her Democratic opponent, Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

In Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller has also sidestepped the issue after making a widely criti- cized remark about the alle- gations being a “hiccup” in the confirmation process. And in Arizona, Rep. Martha McSally’s relatively muted support of Kavanaugh has spoken volumes about how sensitive the matter remains in her race for Senate.

She is running to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, the Republican who almost single-handedly delayed the confirmation by a week after asking for a deeper investigation into the allegations.

But for all the potential liabilities, turning Kavanaugh’s fate into a political cause has created a sense of cohesion among Republicans that has eluded the party for the better part of the past decade, while a simmering civil war between the activist grassroots and the leadership in Washington made collegiality and collaboration exceedingly difficult.

Democrats and liberal advocacy groups, however, sense an opportunity to galvanize voters by turning the issue around on vulnerable Republican incumbents, especially in races where suburban women could be a pivotal voting bloc. And over the last week they have bolstered their efforts.

NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, on Monday said it would spend $1 million on an ad campaign attacking seven House Republicans. “Right now, women are under attack,” says the first ad in the campaign, which is directed at Rep. Peter Roskam, whose highly competitive district includes the affluent suburbs west of Chicago. So far, Roskam has said little about the Kavanaugh confirmation.

House Democrats are also intent on making Republicans own the Kavanaugh confirmation. In a letter to colleagues Monday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, issued a rallying cry: “We must not agonize, we must organize. People must vote.”