Dems seeking path to Senate majority zero-in on Sun Belt

The battle for control of both the White House and the U.S. Senate will center on an overlapping handful of Sun Belt states that will test whether demographic changes and President Trump’s dismal approval ratings can alter the political map.

To win back control of the Senate, Democrats acknowledge they will have to rely in part on their presidential nominee competing in states that have not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for a generation or more.

At the same time, Republicans running for reelection find it difficult or untenable to separate themselves from President Trump, despite his dismal approval ratings, because he still enjoys the ardor of so many Republican base voters.

That is in part because the polarization of American politics has made it more difficult for a Democrat or a Republican to craft their own identities separate from their national parties.

In 2016, for the first time since direct elections of senators began a century ago, no state elected a senator from the party that did not win that state’s electoral votes.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/429520-senate-majority-to-hinge-on-presidential-battleground-states