Inland Republicans running in November face two challenges — their Democratic opponents and the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee.

Local Democrats, subtly and directly, are trying to connect their foes to Donald Trump in hopes that he becomes an anchor on down-ballot Republicans’ chances for victory.

“We’d be fools not to take advantage of … such an opportunity from a divisive candidate in the Republican Party,” said Chris Robles, chairman of the San Bernardino County Democratic Party.

“Every candidate, from city council to school board all the way up the ballot, is tainted by him representing the party,” Robles added. “They have deemed him to be the leader of their party and unless other key leaders like the Speaker of the House reject him outright, they have to own everything he says and does to their detriment.”

Scott Mann, Riverside County GOP chairman, downplayed the effect Trump will have on local races.

“Using presidential candidates to link them to downstream candidates by political opponents is a long-standing political campaign practice,” he said. “There is nothing unusual about this. Both major parties have done it for many years, both in a positive and negative way.”

On a broader level, both parties are working to link their adversaries to Trump or presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Voters in California’s (36th Congressional District) have a clear choice this fall between (Democratic incumbent) Raul Ruiz’s record of fighting for working families, and Jeff Stone’s Republican Party of Trump,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Barb Solish said in a news release sent after the June 7 primary.

Last month, the National Republican Congressional Committee said Ruiz “only wants to make things worse by supporting Hillary Clinton and her tax plan that would crush the middle class.”

GOP candidates for Assembly, state Senate and Congress already have their work cut out for them in California, a state with a plurality of registered Democratic voters and where the percentage of Republican-registered voters is declining.

Democrats hold all statewide elected offices and control the state Legislature. And the November election to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer will feature two Democrats.

Republicans still hold a voter registration edge in Riverside County, home to solidly conservative communities such as Temecula and Murrieta. But Riverside and San Bernardino counties went to Democratic President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Democrats have won several competitive Inland races in recent years.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this month showed that seven in 10 Americans view Trump unfavorably, although 55 percent said the same about Clinton.

But Clinton is widely expected to win California’s 55 electoral votes, while Trump continues to provoke outrage after reiterating his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, saying a judge’s Mexican heritage disqualifies him from overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University and implying in the wake of the Orlando terror attack that Obama is sympathetic to Islamic terrorists.

‘IS WHAT HE IS’

Democrat Tim Sheridan, who is running against Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said Calvert’s support of Trump is “is a mistake for the country.” At the same time, “We’re going to focus on what we’re going to bring to the campaign and what we’re going to do if we’re elected,” he said.

In an emailed response, Calvert said: “I know that the biggest concern in this election for a majority of voters in my district is the possibility of Hillary Clinton carrying out a third term of President Obama’s presidency.”

Calvert’s district, which includes Corona, Norco, Murrieta, Wildomar, Menifee and Lake Elsinore, went for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.

Roy Behr, a consultant for Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, said that by supporting Trump, Stone, a GOP state senator, “is clearly putting blind partisanship ahead of the needs of his constituents.”

“There is no other way to explain his support for someone who has repeatedly disparaged women, veterans, the disabled, Latinos, and Muslims, and who is so obviously unfit to protect our national security,” Behr wrote in an email.

In a statement, Stone campaign consultant Dave Gilliard said: “Congressman Ruiz’s support for a presidential candidate currently under investigation by the FBI, his naive vote for the Iran deal and his insistence on blaming the NRA and the Second Amendment for acts of terror committed by radical Islamists, puts him on the fringe of his own party and makes him vulnerable in November.”

Obama carried the 36th, which includes the Pass, Hemet and San Jacinto, four years ago. He also won the 41st Congressional District, which includes Riverside, Perris, Moreno Valley and Jurupa Valley.

Derek Humphrey, a campaign spokesman for the 41st’s incumbent, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside, said the campaign will focus on Takano’s record of accomplishment.

That said, Takano’s opponent, Doug Shepherd, “is running for a federal office as a Republican and that’s the top-of-the-ticket natural connection between the GOP (presidential) nominee and the candidate,” Humphrey said.

Shepherd said Takano should be concerned about running on Obama and Clinton’s record and that he plans to point out what he describes as the congressman’s ineffective leadership and poor constituent services.

“I’m not running away from (Trump) and I’m not running towards him,” Shepherd said. “He is what he is.”

Obama beat Romney in San Bernardino County’s 31st Congressional District, which includes Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Loma Linda and Grand Terrace. The 31st’s incumbent, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, faces a re-election challenge from Republican Paul Chabot.

In an email, Aguilar campaign manager Matt Leibman said: “Chabot’s continued support of Trump isn’t surprising, since they both oppose laws to reduce gun violence, they oppose allowing women to make their own health care decisions, and they oppose immigration reform that will keep Inland Empire families together instead of tearing them apart.”

In a statement, Chabot said: “It isn’t surprising that Pete Aguilar is making up lies about my vision for a better San Bernardino and record fighting crime and terror to distract from his utter failure as a representative for this district. On Aguilar’s watch crime has skyrocketed, the economy is failing and we are (losing) the battle against ISIS and terrorists.”

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pe.com