While the polls mostly look grim for Trump as of today, two weeks can be a lifetime in politics.

At some point do down-ballot Republicans all but concede that Hillary will win, and argue that a vote for the Republican House or Senate candidate is needed as a check and balance on future President Hillary?

That’s what Republican are accused of already doing in the Missouri Senate race, which by many accounts may determine who controls the Senate. The current polling shows Republican Roy Blunt very slightly ahead, but it’s now considered a toss-up.

The AP reports, GOP Senate Ad Acknowledges Clinton Likely to Win:

A new GOP ad in the Missouri Senate race acknowledges that Hillary Clinton is likely to be president and warns against sending a Democratic senator to join her. It’s the latest example of an ad strategy that Republicans have begun employing as Donald Trump’s defeat looks increasingly likely. Here’s the message: Elect Republicans to be a “check and balance” against Clinton. The ad backing GOP Sen. Roy Blunt is by from the Senate Leadership Fund. It’s a well-funded Senate campaign committee run by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The ads shows the Democratic candidate in Missouri, Jason Kander, morphing into Clinton and claims the two are identical on issues including immigration and liberal Supreme Court justices. The narrator says: “One Hillary in Washington would be bad enough, reject Jason Kander.”

Here is the ad. It certainly doesn’t concede that Hillary will win explicitly, but it does suggest the argument that a check and balance may be needed:

There’s a danger in this strategy. While some down-ballot Republicans in blue-ish states have disavowed Trump as an electoral strategy, in reddish states that could mean the loss of Trump voters which would doom any Republican. For Roy Blunt and others, it’s an argument that can’t be made, which may be why it isn’t the Blunt campaign sending the message.



