Republicans have a simple strategy for how to campaign against a slate of independent candidates running for Senate seats in red states: Take every opportunity to tie them to Democrats.
In Nebraska, South Dakota, Idaho and Montana, Republican Senate candidates are running against independents who have held the Democratic Party at arm’s length in order to make competitive runs. These are states where Democratic candidates have flopped in recent years.
Now Democrats are making the case that the independents — who they hope would caucus with their party, even as some of them have said they would not — stand a chance of defeating Republicans because of the current political environment.