Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says Democrats have a political advantage over the GOP, whose candidates may have to distance themselves from President Donald Trump to win.

The former lieutenant governor of Maryland told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday that when he ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006, "[I] remember kind of pushing against that scarlet letter, the 'R' at that time" in the wake of President George W. Bush's dismal approval ratings.

"That scarlet letter is now back in play for the Democrats — and a bigger emphasis on it this time. And they have the advantage right now …

"The question I think politically for the RNC is; how do you develop that ground game to make sure your base…is not just focused on the president, but those candidates that are also going to be on the ballot in his name."

Mediaite reports that when Steele was running for Senate, Gallup had Bush's approval rating at just above 30 percent. Last week, Gallup said Trump's approval rating was 39 percent.

Steele's remark about the scarlet letter is a reference to the classic 1850 novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne in which an adulteress named Hester Prynne, who lives in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts, must wear a scarlet A to mark her shame.