The fate of the GOP-controlled Senate could come down to the performance of a handful of Democrats — former Democrats running as Republicans, that is.

Four major GOP candidates in top battleground races actually voted in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, and their party allegiance is already a hot-button topic in the contests.


The latest instance is in Mississippi, where Gov. Phil Bryant announced last week he intends to appoint state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Democrat until 2010, to replace Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) when Cochran resigns next week.

At least three other Republicans in some of the most vulnerable Democratic-held Senate seats up this year — Rep. Evan Jenkins in West Virginia, businessman and veteran Kevin Nicholson in Wisconsin and former state legislator Mike Braun in Indiana — also cast ballots in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, leaving themselves open to brutal attacks from their primary rivals.

Their opponents are already turning their past primary votes into tests of their conservative purity and fidelity to President Donald Trump. The more those attacks are litigated, the bigger the question mark for these party switchers to galvanize base voters — both in their primaries, and in a possible general election against a Democrat. All four races are critical to the GOP's Senate efforts in 2018: The party is defending the seat in Mississippi, while the other three are among the 10 Democratic-held seats up this year in states Trump carried two years ago.

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A number of party-switchers have been able to make that difficult case to GOP voters, including two of the 51 Republican senators currently serving.

“My opponents made a big deal out of it,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who switched parties in 2007 when he was state treasurer and won his Senate seat last cycle.

But he said candidates can overcome these attacks. “I think people want to know why you made the change, and that’s an important and fair question.”

The stakes are highest for Hyde-Smith, and for Republicans in Washington and Mississippi, who are worried her past as a Democrat could make it harder to get past conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the state’s special election. McDaniel has declared the “last thing the state of Mississippi needs in Washington is another moderate Democrat.”

Because of the state’s method for conducting special elections, McDaniel could use Hyde-Smith’s partisan history as a cudgel against the appointee and end up in a head-to-head race with a Democratic candidate, likely former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy — a virtual no-win situation for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies. It's why Trump and his political operation urged Bryant not to tap Hyde-Smith, worried about the attacks she would face.

Both Bryant and Hyde-Smith have tried to glide past her party history and instead emphasize her ideology, with Bryant calling her “the most reliable vote I had for conservative causes” in the state Senate when he was the state’s lieutenant governor, and Hyde-Smith proclaiming she has “always been a conservative.” She switched parties in the run-up to the 2010 elections, when she was first elected agriculture commissioner.

McDaniel, however, has tried to contrast her 2008 Democratic primary vote with his own political past. In a press release Friday morning, he noted he became a Republican “at age thirteen when I first heard Ronald Reagan speak,” and contrasted it with Hyde-Smith’s continued tenure in the party: “Mississippi wants to know: Who did Cindy Hyde-Smith vote for? Clinton or Obama?”

Hyde-Smith’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The collection of former Democrats now running in the GOP reflects the Democratic Party’s rapid political decline in Appalachia and in the Deep South, from a party that still had legislative majorities in 2010 to political poison today, and a general weakening of political parties in general — the number of Americans who identify with either party is at an all-time low.

In the 2016 cycle, Louisianans sent Kennedy to the Senate. And in Missouri, Republicans ignored Eric Greitens’ past as a Democrat, including his one-time recruitment by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and elected him to the governorship.

And of course, President Donald Trump’s past as a Democratic voter and donor didn’t stop him from running roughshod over what had been thought of as the strongest GOP presidential field in memory.

“The president opened the door in the Republican Party for significant number of elected officials to switch parties,” said Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Still, “when it comes to primary politics, you’re still always going to have party regulars who view fidelity to the GOP as a prerequisite for getting through.”

Hyde-Smith was a Democratic state legislator until 2010, when she switched parties to run for Agriculture Commissioner. Jenkins has a similar story: He served in the legislature as a Democrat until he switched parties in 2014 to challenge former Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.).

Nicholson was president of the College Democrats of America, and has said his experiences serving in the Army and as a father led him through a political transformation. Braun’s campaign said the businessman, who later served in the state legislature as a Republican, was attempting to influence the direction of the Democratic Party with his votes in primary election.

Jenkins’ campaign said, in 2008, he didn’t vote for either Obama or Clinton, and says he voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the general. He did attend a Clinton campaign event during her presidential bid. Nicholson has claimed he voted “no preference” in the 2008 primary. Braun’s campaign has never addressed who he voted for. All three campaigns didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Kennedy said he faced attacks over his support of John Kerry in 2004, but was able to bat them away by being honest about his “mistake.” Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist for the super PAC that backed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection in 2014, recalled how Republicans were able to hammer Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes over her refusal to say whether or not she had voted for former President Barack Obama in 2012.

“Honesty and authenticity is much better than any other malarkey answer that sounds cagey,” he said.

Beyond the presidential vote, the campaigns have faced other attacks relating to their Democratic histories. In Wisconsin, both parties have highlighted events from Nicholson’s year leading the College Democrats of America — including his invitation to Rosie O’Donnell to talk about gun control — as evidence he’s inauthentic. One of Braun’s primary opponents, Rep. Todd Rokita, sarcastically welcomed him to the Republican Party at their first debate. Jenkins’ two primary opponents in West Virginia have suggested he’s a clone of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the man they’re fighting to take on in the fall.

“In the past, Evan Jenkins supported Joe Manchin and his liberal friends,” the narrator says in an ad from Don Blankenship’s campaign in West Virginia. “Career politicians like Joe Manchin and Evan Jenkins have kept West Virginia last in jobs and near first in poverty.”