While the country is becoming more split, Democrats are hoping ticket-splitters can help them keep control the Senate in key battleground states, The Washington Post reported.
While D.C. Aiken wants Republicans to regain control of Congress, he is voting for Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., because he calls him "a person of credit," rejecting voting Republican for challenger Herschel Walker.
"I think you have to vote, and I have to say, I can't vote right now for Mr. Walker," Aiken told the Post.
Republicans are hoping it is Democrats who vote for Republicans, ostensibly making the midterms a referendum on President Joe Biden.
"These people, they'd like to provide a correction on Biden," Republican strategist Sarah Longwell said of focus groups showing ticket-splitters are possible in these midterms.
"And the question is whether they can find candidates that they can stomach to do that."
The University of Chicago's Daniel Moskowitz noted 11% of voters in 2016 picked the same party for president and the Senate, but that ratio was 20%-30% through the 1960s-1980s, according to the Post.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is potentially a catalyst for ticket-splitting the Republican Party. He has chosen not to back some of former President Donald Trump's endorsed candidates with his Senate Leadership Fund, even if it might impact the control of the Senate.
A Pennsylvania GOP strategist, David La Torre, in a similar vein, told the Post, Dr. Mehmet Oz "has rightly separated himself" and La Torre vows to vote for the "the more moderate," suggesting Doug Mastriano is not his pick against Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor.
American Crossroads, a GOP ad buyer calls Oz's opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman "way more radical" than Shapiro.
But Fetterman is trying to pitch himself to the GOP, hosting a "Republicans for Fetterman" news conference Friday.
"Every day, we’re seeing more and more Republicans coming out of the woodwork to support John," Fetterman campaign spokesman Joe Calvello told the Post.
In Ohio, Rep. Tim Ryan, R-Ohio, is trying to usurp GOP voters who back Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine by double digits over Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, according to the Post.
"There's simply no other way that he is going to be able to win this race," Ohio Northern University's Robert Alexander.
J.D. Vance is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, along with DeWine — but the latter has not appeared with Trump at Ohio Save America rallies, keeping a distance in the bellwether state that twice voted for Trump over Democrats.
Vance is "proud to have the unified support of Republicans in Ohio, including endorsements from Gov. DeWine and Sen. [Rob] Portman," Luke Schroeder, a spokesman for the Vance campaign, told the Post.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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