There was a time in the early summer of 2016, after Donald Trump seemed to have locked up the Republican presidential nomination but before he attacked an Indiana judge as “Mexican” and picked a ruthless fight with a Gold Star family, that embracing Trump as a down-ticket candidate seemed like a gamble worth taking.

For newcomers, it would be a way to both get early media attention and surf off the best of the Trump brand to tell voters they were a new kind of candidate, too. For incumbents, going full-Trump was the path of least resistance — a way to stay loyal to the party and its likely nominee, and associate with the man who was, against all odds, clobbering the competition in their states.

Fast forward to late August, with both conventions over and fewer than 90 days left to the general election, and life is not going well for the early Trump adopters.

Rep. Renee Ellmers was the first canary in the collapsing Trump coal mine. In March, Ellmers became the first woman in Congress to endorse Trump, saying she understood “exactly how he feels,” in his shabby treatment from the Republican establishment. Days before her June primary, Trump returned the favor and chose the pro-immigration North Carolina Republican as his debut congressional endorsement. Three days later, Ellmers lost by 30 points and became the first incumbent Republican to lose a primary in 2016. So much for coattails,

[Ellmers Becomes First GOP Incumbent to Lose in 2016]