Texas Republicans are distancing themselves from lagging Trump
AUSTIN — As national polls show Hillary Clinton widening her lead just two weeks before the presidential election, Texas Republicans mostly have gone silent about the candidate at the top of their ticket, presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Trump’s Texas campaign chairman, is the only one who seems to be pushing The Donald’s candidacy much in public. On Monday, he tweeted a get-out-the-vote message to Keep Texas Red with the #TrumpPence16 hashtag at the end.
“When things start going south, in politics, you have no friends anymore. That’s what you’re seeing with Donald Trump right now. He doesn’t have a lot of friends left.” Cal Jillson, political scientist at SMU
Other elected officials who earlier were public in their support of the candidate now are circumspect about referring to him, a notuncommon tactic that political observers say is aimed at protecting down-ballot candidates when the party nominee is running behind in the homestretch of a presidential election.
“When a campaign starts, everyone wants to be up there on stage with the nominee to get attention for their campaigns,” said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University who has studied campaigns for years. “But when things start going south, in politics, you have no friends anymore. That’s what you’re seeing with Donald Trump right now. He doesn’t have a lot of friends left.”
On Monday, more than a dozen elected officials in Texas who earlier publicly supported Trump declined
comment on whether they would be out campaigning for him in the final two weeks before the Nov. 8 election.
That reticence comes as polls have shown Trump and Clinton running neck and neck statistically in one of the reddest states in the country. Most of those Republican politicians stressed they were focusing on state and local races, not on Trump.
In fact, Republican Party of Texas officials have said for weeks that the Trump campaign essentially was operating separate and apart from the state GOP victory campaign for downballot candidates. The victory effort is headed by Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, son of unsuccessful Trump rival Jeb Bush and never a big public supporter of the New York tycoon.
That victory effort was in Houston on Monday, helping state Rep. Sarah Davis, a moderate West University Place Republican who has never been on the Trump Train.
Texas GOP spokesman Michael Joyce said the state party is focusing its final campaign push on urging voters to cast a straightticket ballot, a move that would benefit all Republicans, including Trump. “We have always been focused on winning for all Republicans, and this year is no exception,” he said.
At the same time, Gov. Greg Abbott, who endorsed Trump but has not actively campaigned for him, said Monday that he has mobilized his statewide campaign network for Republican candidates “up and down the ballot,” including a Tuesday appearance in Houston to ensure that GOP judges are re-elected, Abbott campaign officials said. “The governor will be encouraging voters to do exactly as he did today — punch one and be done,” a campaign statement read.
It made no mention of Trump.
Allen Blakemore, Patrick’s top political strategist, said Monday that the lieutenant governor has no plans to campaign for Trump because the nominee does not plan to be in Texas before the election. “But, yes, he has get-outthe-vote appearances, robocalls and all to get Republicans elected. The message is to vote straight-ticket.”
Smart politics
Political consultants in Austin said the scarcity of the Trump name in voterturnout efforts across Texas may seem strange, but it is smart politics. Trump is unpopular among some Texas voters, after controversies exploded in recent weeks over his debate performances and allegations of past sexual harassment and advances. Texas candidates do not want to have to address those issues by invoking his name in the final weeks of close campaigns, they said.
“Look, to Hispanic Republican incumbents, Trump is a heavy anchor. To suburban Republicans, he’s a net negative. And he’s not helpful in the 23rd Congressional District race,” said Austin Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak. “Nationally, not a lot of Republicans are running as Trump Republicans because his negatives are so high, and that’s true in Texas. This distancing is predictable. This is what happens when you have a nominee who will probably not win.”
Other consultants and political scientists said the same distancing by downballot candidates happening now in Texas and other states occurred in 1996 when, just weeks before the election, Republican nominee Bob Dole was behind in the polls. He lost to Bill Clinton, but Republicans held their majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House.
Even so, Mackowiak said he finds the current Lone Star silence about Trump “very unusual” because Texas is so strongly Republican, a state where most Republican leaders still privately predict that Trump will beat Clinton by as much as six points, even though he probably will lose big in major urban areas, less so in the suburbs and win big in rural areas.
“We haven’t seen anything like Trump, a nominee who is attacking our candidates and who shows no loyalty for the party and little in return,” he said. “What’s really going on here is, Trump and party are kind of handcuffed together, jumping off a cliff, and hoping that the other one lands first so it will soften the blow for the other.”
‘He’s radioactive’
For many Texans, including more than a dozen who were touring the Texas Capitol on Monday, the absence of Trump’s name in the final campaign days is a blessing.
“Unfortunately, even though he’s right about a lot of things, especially about needing to throw out the political establishment in this country, no one wants to hear from him now because he’s radioactive,” said Sharon Ridener, a San Antonio resident who says she will vote for GOP candidates but will not cast a ballot in the presidential race. “As much as I hate to say this, Hillary Clinton has won. Let’s move on.”