John McCain has publicly maintained that Donald Trump will have little impact on his bid to win his sixth term in the Senate. However, a recording obtained from a private Arizona fundraiser last month tells a very different story.
McCain can be heard saying on the recording released by POLITICO:
“If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life.”
He later says:
“If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I’ve never seen in 30 years.”
McCain is still considered a favorite to win, but his comments reveal just how worried many are about the damage Trump is doing to the GOP’s chances of gaining control of the Senate.
This is especially concerning in states where a significant proportion of the population are Latino. In Arizona 22 percent of voters are Latino, while in Florida and Nevada they make up 18 percent and 17 percent of eligible voters.
With two dozen seats to defend this year, many of them in blue and purple states, Republicans have every right to be worried, especially when one of McCain’s former top aides has pledged support for Clinton.
McCain, who will most likely be up against Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, could find himself a major target over his support for Trump.
Trump has attempted to soften his views on undocumented immigrants recently with the general election in sight, but it’s a case of too little too late. A poll run by Latino Decisions reported in April that Trump was rated unfavorably by a whopping 87 percent of respondents and this is unlikely to change.
Not only is Trump almost universally disliked by Hispanics, his racism has also galvanized the Latino community to head to voting booths on Election Day. Officials are predicting a 24 percent boost in the turnout of Latino voters in Nevada compared with 2012, and a 20 percent increase in Florida.
If these trends continue and carry over to other states, the GOP is in serious danger of losing key Senate seats. In these circumstances Senate candidates will have no choice but to publicly break with Trump or face political annihilation.
McCain has built up trust and respect in the Latino community through his support for immigration reform. He has also spoken out consistently against Trump’s racism, but even this might not be enough to save him when negative sentiments towards Trump are running so high, and not just among Latinos.
McCain and others continue to support Trump in public for now, but it could be only a matter of time before they turn on the presumptive nominee for their own political survival.
By preaching his politics of hatred and division, it’s so very ironic that Trump has done more to divide and weaken his own party in 2016 than the Republican party’s opponents could have dreamed of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPEqWR8muaE
Featured image by Pimpkle from Flickr. Permission to use under Creative Commons 2.0
