Hillary Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said voters could expect to see more talk from Clinton about the Senate. | Getty Clinton campaign signals new push for Senate control

ST. LOUIS — Senate Democratic leaders have long urged Hillary Clinton and her campaign to pay more attention to her party’s fight for control of the Senate, beyond mentioning local candidates at the beginning of her rallies. On Sunday, as Donald Trump reels and members of his party sprinted away from him, a top Clinton adviser signaled that such a shift may be coming.

“One thing that we would note is people like John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, Rob Portman, Congressman [Joe] Heck, we think they have a lot to answer for,” said communications director Jennifer Palmieri aboard Clinton’s campaign plane, on the flight to St. Louis. “These are leaders of the Republican Party that legitimized Donald Trump’s candidacy, that propped him up a number of times. Kelly Ayotte herself has said on 30 different occasions that she supports him, she said as recently as a week ago that he was a role model."


The statement could signify the beginning of a change of tack for the Clinton camp, which for months has tried to cleave Trump from the rest of the party, paving the way for an exodus of support like the one that took hold this weekend, as a handful of elected officials abandoned him.

Clinton is often introduced by Senate candidates when she is in their state, and she frequently voices her support for the local hopefuls, but Senate leaders like Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer have urged her to send more resources down the ballot, insisting her presidency would be seriously hampered by a Republican-controlled chamber.

Each of the GOP officials mentioned by Palmieri is locked in a Senate race, and when she was asked whether voters could expect to see more talk about the Senate coming from Clinton’s campaign — particularly now that Trump appears to be struggling more than ever before — Palmieri said, “Yes."

“The events of the most recent days are dramatic and certainly troubling, but we still have a very close race on our hands, so that’s what we’ll be prosecuting the case against,” she said. “But we think that part of the problem of the Trump candidacy is the Republican Party has let him hijack it, they let him come in and give him this platform that allows try hateful, divisive rhetoric, as well as a lot of traditional, dangerous Republican economic policies. We don’t think Donald Trump should be the only person who should be held accountable for that."

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated Rep. Heck's first name.