ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Donald Trump has announced plans to hit the campaign trail on behalf of fellow Republicans seeking office — to work “six or seven days a week” to help them win, as he told Sean Hannity of Fox News in a recent interview.

The smart ones will stand by him.

The smart candidates won’t try and distance themselves from this president.

In March, USA Today blasted out this headline: “GOP House candidates with survival instincts will step away from Trump.”

The opinion piece went on to say that Trump’s approval rating, at the time, was around 40 percent — “well below the comfort level for GOP House candidates this year. They are on rocky terrain in districts that are not gerrymandered in their favor, and under water even in many that are drawn to give them an advantage. The math simply doesn’t work for them.”

Right-o. Guess when else the math didn’t work for Republicans?

Circa 2016, when Hillary Clinton went down in flames to Trump. All the math put forward by the media in the form of polling statistics pointed to a solid Clinton win.

In June, it was this from the New York Post: “GOP candidates distancing themselves from Trump’s border controversy” and this, “GOP candidates distance themselves from ‘cruel’ immigration policy.”

The story went on to say that Florida Gov. Rick Scott, seeking Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s seat, opposes family separations at the border, as did fellow Republicans Charlie Baker, seeking reelection for governor of Massachusetts, and Rep. Kevin Yoder, seeking reelection in a district won by Clinton a couple years ago.

But that’s a single issue in a large pool of issues.

You don’t toss out the baby with the bathwater.

Republicans seeking office during the midterms need to focus on one issue, and one issue only — and it’s a core strength of this White House’s administration: the economy.

“U.S. economy surges to 4.1% growth rate in Q2,” The Economic Times reported.

And from NPR — a publicly funded media group that typically swings left on the political scales — came this acknowledgement: “The U.S. economy had a blockbuster second quarter, with growth surging to a 4.1 percent pace. … That was nearly double the first quarter rate of 2.2 percent and the strongest pace in nearly four years. President Trump has been steadfastly claiming that his policies will catapult the U.S. economy … 4 percent over the next few years. That would be about double the growth rate in recent years. And it would almost certainly mean a big boost in the standard of living for many Americans.”

Higher wages. Better job opportunities. Improved public services.

These are all gold stars on the campaign trail. And they’ve been brought to America, courtesy of this White House’s policies.

Any campaigning Republican ought to seize those reins and run with them. The smart GOP candidates this election season are sticking tight with Trump, at the very least to ride his economic coattails all the way to the ballot box.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

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