Maureen Groppe

Star Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Indiana Democrats are about to get an infusion of $500,000 from Hillary Clinton.

While acknowledging Clinton’s path to victory is difficult in Indiana, campaign manager Robby Mook said Monday the Democratic presidential nominee wants to help Democrats win the competitive Senate and gubernatorial races.

The money will be spent on mailings, radio and digital ads to turn out voters for those and other races.

“Donald Trump is becoming more unhinged by the day, and that is increasing prospects for Democrats further down the ballot because of higher than expected turnout and enthusiasm,” Mook said in a call with reporters.

Mook said the campaign is contributing more than $6 million for get-out-the-vote efforts in seven other states that are critical for the presidential contest, in addition to having significant races elsewhere on the ballot. The campaign also is increasing assistance to Arizona and to congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.

And although neither Indiana nor Missouri is a battleground state at the presidential level, the campaign is committing $1 million to be spent about equally between the states.

“While Secretary Clinton faces an uphill battle in both states,” Mook said, “Democrats are gaining steam in critical races for Senate and governor, as well as local and state legislative races.”

A Monmouth University poll of Hoosier voters released last week brought good news across the board for Democrats.

Trump’s 11-percentage point lead in August had shrunk to 4 points.

Former Sen. Evan Bayh had a 6-point lead over GOP Rep. Todd Young in the Senate race, despite some missteps and an onslaught of attacks by outside groups.

And Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg had a 12-point advantage over Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Democrats also hope Trump's controversial campaign and close races for governor and senator will help them build momentum to end the Republican supermajority in the Indiana House and pick up seats in the Indiana Senate. Mook predicted the election will set a record for voter turnout.

Democrats hope to end Statehouse supermajorities

Indiana GOP Chairman Jeff Cardwell said Clinton is trying to bail out Gregg, who gave the maximum $2,700 individual contribution to Clinton's 2016 campaign and endorsed her 2008 bid.

"It should come as no surprise that Hillary Clinton is coming to the aid of one of her most loyal soldiers," Cardwell said in a statement.

A spokesman for Young said Bayh and Clinton mostly voted alike when both served in the Senate.

"This is more evidence that he's with her, not with Hoosiers," said spokesman Jay Kenworthy.

The money from Clinton for Indiana get-out-the-vote efforts is coming from a joint fundraising campaign set up by Clinton and national and state parties.

Trump's campaign and the two joint fundraising committees he established with the Republican Party ended September with about half the $150 million that Clinton and her joint fundraising committees had in the bank.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat expected to become the leader of Senate Democrats next year, transferred $500,000 from his campaign committee to a Bayh joint fundraising committee, which raised about $1 million to help the state Democratic Party get out the vote.

Young’s joint fundraising committee also raised $1 million for Indiana Republicans.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, has spent nearly $1 million to help defeat Bayh.

Bayh and Young have had difficult balancing acts when dealing with the top of the ticket.

Bayh, for example, has close ties to Clinton, including raising at least $100,000 for her presidential campaign. That’s not a relationship he's highlighting in GOP-leaning Indiana. Instead, Republicans are doing it for him. Several of the ads run by Young and by the national party have linked Bayh with Clinton.

“And remember, Evan, you don’t know Hillary!” a pseudo Bayh aide tells a pseudo Bayh in one of Young’s ads.

“Hillary who?” the pseudo Bayh responds.

Bayh’s own ads don’t mention Trump. That’s not surprising, because Bayh will likely need Trump supporters to cross over and vote for him. Nearly 20 percent of Trump supporters are backing Bayh, according to the Monmouth University poll.

But after Trump’s lewd comments about women captured in a 2005 video were published this month, and a series of women said they had been sexually assaulted by Trump, Bayh’s campaign has criticized Young’s support of Trump.

“Hoosiers are owed an explanation for your continued support of a candidate so flagrantly in opposition to our values,” campaign adviser Dan Parker said in a statement last week.

Although Young said after the video release he was considering not voting for Trump, he told The Washington Post last week he's among the majority of Indiana voters expected to vote for Trump in November. "My position is the same as their position," Young told The Post. "Most Hoosiers intend to support the Republican nominees."

Half of the likely Hoosier voters surveyed by Monmouth University last week had no opinion of Young's support for Trump. Fifteen percent said he has been too supportive, while 9 percent said Young hasn't been supportive enough.

USA TODAY reporter Fredreka Schouten and IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich contributed to this story.

Email Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.

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