Kavanaugh nomination battle will affect races

WASHINGTON» The nomination fight over recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has injected new volatility into the midterm elections, reshaping races across the U.S. and sharpening the already bitterly partisan tone for the final fourweek stretch before Election Day.

Much uncertainty remains — not least because of the rapidfire succession of evolving crises that have marked President Donald Trump’s term in office — but for now the weekslong Kavanaugh saga appears to be pushing House races toward Democrats, even as it has given Republicans better odds of maintaining control of the Senate.

That division stems from the makeup of the races and the political geography of the most competitive battles. House contests this fall already were expected to be determined by suburban women, who had pulled away from the president over his term in the White House and appear to be the most sympathetic to Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were teenagers during the 1980s.

But most of this year’s competitive Senate races are in traditionally red states, and as Republicans have rallied to Kavanaugh’s side, the chances of Democratic upsets there have dropped, at least for now.

Democrats are growing more concerned about keeping their seats in Indiana, Missouri and Montana and appear to be losing ground when it comes to potential pickups in Texas and Tennessee. One of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, has fallen far behind her Republican challenger in new polling.