Senate Republicans are casting a wide net in November, and their candidates appear to believe they have found the two words that can drag their opponents down: Joe Biden.
On the second night of the Republican National Convention, Senate GOP hopefuls in tough races made a point to link their Democratic opponents to the president, whose poll numbers have been slipping behind down-ballot Democrats across the country.
“Americans are waking up to the truth about the disastrous Democrat policies pushed by Joe Biden and his favorite congressman, my opponent, Ruben Gallego,” Kari Lake, Republican Senate hopeful in Arizona, said. “These guys, they are full of bad ideas … Gallego and the Democrats have handed over control of my state, Arizona’s border, to the drug cartels. And because of them, criminals and deadly drugs are pouring in, and our children are dying.”
Tying Gallego to Biden has been a theme of Lake’s frequent ads saturating the Phoenix airwaves: “Gallego votes with Biden 100% of the time,” one of those ads says, referring to Biden’s economic and border policies.
Eric Hovde, who is running against Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, said, “Biden, with Baldwin’s help, has weakened us in every way.” Linking them on Tuesday was just a continuation of his prior advertising — his campaign released a website and ad earlier this year that says the two “agree on nearly everything.”
“Where Biden and Baldwin have failed. President Trump and I will get the job done,” Hovde said at the RNC. “America is struggling under Joe Biden and Sen. Baldwin has been a rubber stamp, voting with him 95.5% of the time.”
Bernie Moreno, running against Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has also run an ad highlighting their vote overlap. The ad included clips of Biden calling Brown his “buddy” and Brown saying Biden’s politics “are not much different from mine.”
He kept it up at the RNC.
“The American dream that I lived is under attack from Joe Biden and his enablers in the Senate like Sherrod Brown,” Moreno said. “Sherrod Brown votes with Biden virtually 100% of the time. I don’t know if I agree with my wife 100% of the time.”
Republicans’ messaging strategy aligns with recent polling. Biden has been consistently trailing Democratic Senate candidates. Baldwin is winning her race, and Biden isn’t, per a recent survey from AARP, where the senator polled a staggering 12 points ahead of Biden. A Marist poll last month had Brown up 5 points on Moreno while Biden trailed Trump by 7 points.
Marist’s June Pennsylvania poll also had Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania 6 points over Dave McCormick while Biden was down 2 points against Trump. At the RNC, McCormick said when Casey votes, “he votes for Joe Biden’s tired old ideas.”
Tim Sheehy, the Republican Senate nominee from Montana had a similar emphasis. He said he was running “to bring back accountability to our government and beat Jon Tester, the liberal Washington politician who votes with Biden and Kamala [Harris] every single time it matters.” This comes after numerous ads running in the state linking Democrat Tester to the president.
“Some of you may not know who Jon Tester is, but Jon Tester is the deciding vote for Biden’s America last agenda,” he said. “Jon Tester doesn’t represent Montanans. He’s a rubber stamp for Biden’s failed presidency and extreme liberal agenda.”
GOP hopeful Sam Brown of Nevada also linked opponent Sen. Jacky Rosen and Biden at the policy level.
“The Biden-Harris economy might be fine for millionaires like Sen. Jacky Rosen,” he said. “Jacky and Joe want to raise your taxes while dodging their own.”
Democrats, as NOTUS reported, are aware of Biden’s lagging numbers and responding by attempting to keep their distance. Tester in Montana has stressed his differences with Biden and said the president must prove he’s up for the job. Baldwin has skipped appearances with Biden in Wisconsin four times this year after appearing with him once in January. And Sherrod Brown has highlighted press coverage that draws distinctions between his policy and Biden’s.
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Nuha Dolby and Tara Kavaler are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.