How does a Democrat senator hang on to his seat when voters are leaning Republican? If you’re 17-year incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, D-Penn., you start running advertisements aligning with former President Donald Trump.
Same thing if you’re 11-year incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who is also running ads framing Trump as her buddy.
The feeling is not mutual, with Trump calling Baldwin a “Radical leftist senator.”
Baldwin must have noticed a change in the wind to suddenly align with Trump because in September she was seen on video calling Trump the “most offensive, and hateful, and unacceptable presidential candidate we’ve ever had.”
“What does that say about the people who support him?” she added.
“Imagine being Kamala Harris and changing the channel from President Trump’s epic performance at the Al Smith dinner only to see … swing state Senate Democrats embracing President Trump’s historic record in their ads,” Republican National Committee Spokesman Gates McGavick told The Federalist. “Thankfully for Kamala, this will all be over for her in just 18 days.”
Trump was asked about this phenomenon on a recent appearance on a Breitbart News Special Report, hosted by Matt Boyle, that aired on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125.
“Well, it’s an honor, actually,” Trump said. “They have senators that voted to impeach me, Democrat, and they’re Democrats, and now they’re bragging about my policies, and they have to use that because their policies were radical left and not good. So they’re now taking ads saying that I was in favor of tariffs like President Trump. I was in favor of this and that. And nobody’s ever seen anything quite like it, but they weren’t. I mean, they weren’t.”
Riding Trump’s Popularity to Maintain Statehouse Power
Federal Democrat candidates are not the only ones embracing the “Trump is my pal,” strategy.
In a Republican-leaning Pennsylvania district, 16-year incumbent Pennsylvania State Rep. Frank Burns is running as a Trump-loving Democrat.
Burns has been running ads — many, many ads — attacking his Republican challenger, Amy Bradley, using images of Trump, and implying that he is more aligned with Trump than Bradley is.
“President Trump supports secure borders and putting America first. Amy Bradley doesn’t,” one television ad says. “It’s time to tell Amy Bradley —” the video cuts to Trump saying, “You’re fired. Get out of here.” In fact, Burns is the incumbent and could be the one fired by voters in this scenario.
It is also a total lie. Trump endorsed Bradley.
“Frank seems to be obsessed with President Trump’s endorsement of me. He is accusing me of tricking the president, which is ridiculous,” Bradley told The Federalist. “Sen. JD Vance also endorsed me last weekend following Frank’s accusations, they are clearly on board with my campaign.”
Local Republicans driving past the “Republicans for Burns” signs dotted strategically throughout Cambria County next to Trump signs, may believe they were paid for by Republicans, but the fine print on the signs shows they were paid for by The Committee to Reelect Frank Burns.
Burns represents District 72 in the Pennsylvania House. The district largely covers Cambria County, which went for Trump in 2020. According to Pennsylvania Department of State data, the district currently has 20,272 registered Republicans; 16,902 registered Democrats; and 4,910 registered voters not affiliated with the two major parties.
To win, Burns needs to flip Republican voters, and he often tries to present himself as friendly to conservative causes. Burns is endorsed by Gun Owners of America. The Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation endorsed Burns as the incumbent with a known voting record, and also lists Bradley as a pro-life candidate. Burns sometimes votes against his party.
Yet Democrats are spending big bucks on this small, rural, state race to keep Burns in power.
“Right now, the Democrats hold a one vote majority in our state house, 102-101, so every member of each caucus matters,” Matt Brouillette, CEO and president of the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, told The Federalist. “Frank Burns is an outlier in that he is in a very conservative district but empowers the Philadelphia progressive political agenda to march through the halls of our General Assembly.”
A look at Pennsylvania Department of State campaign finance reports going back to 2008 show The Committee to Reelect Frank Burns fund rarely had more than $100,000, and often much less for campaign spending. That is typical spending for a race of this size in Pennsylvania. His most recent required financial filing, May 13, 2024, shows he had $40,000 on hand.
The new financial reports, due Oct. 25, will show a huge infusion of cash into the Burns campaign, because the Committee to Reelect Frank Burns has spent more than $4 million on broadcast advertising.
FCC records show Burns has signed multiple advertising contracts in excess of $100,000 each.
It is quite a contrast from the nearly $22,000 his Republican challenger has spent so far.
The Federalist requested an interview with Burns but he did not respond, so we could not ask him who is funding these extraordinary buys.
But it helps to understand the delicate balance of power in the statehouse. The party in power leads committee discussions, and the majority leader decides which bills make it to the floor for a vote. For a long time, Pennsylvania has had a Republican-led House and Senate, and a Democrat governor. It meant Republican bills passed and were often vetoed by the governor. Democrats were powerless to get much done.
After 12 years of Republican leadership, in 2022, the Pennsylvania House flipped to a razor thin Democrat majority, 102-101. But immediately after the election, before the House was sworn into office in January 2023, Democrats had three vacant seats, giving Republicans the voting majority, 101 Republicans and 99 Democrats.
One Democrat seat was empty because longtime Democrat Rep. Anthony M. “Tony” DeLuca died after the ballots were printed. Voters chose him posthumously.
Two other seats were immediately vacated by candidates who ran for two offices at the same time and won both seats. They both left their House seats for higher offices. Former state Rep. Austin Davis is now lieutenant governor, and former state Rep. Summer Lee is now in Congress.
Republicans wanted to vote for a party leader while they had the voting majority. Democrats used delaying tactics and by February 2023, Democrats had won special elections to fill the three vacancies, and the power was back to 102 Democrats and 101 Republicans.
But in July, former state Rep. Sara Innamorato, a Democrat, left the district representative seat to run for the position of Allegheny County Executive. The House was tied at 101 for each party until a September 2023 special election where Democrat Lindsay Powell prevailed, moving the power back to Democrats 102 and Republicans 101.
The tug of war has continued since then. Often when Democrats lose a member, they go into recess until it is resolved so Republicans can’t call a special vote and regain power over the chamber.
With the help of Frank Burns voting with his party, the chamber voted to make Democrat Joanna McClinton Speaker of the House, and with that, the longtime Republican House veered its agenda to the left. Democrats desperately want to hold on to power — even if it means promoting Trump’s agenda in campaign ads.
“[Burns] can’t disown the fact that he voted for Joanna. He had to, and that’s typical Frank Burns. When the party needs him, he’s there for Democrats,” State Rep. Josh Kail, who serves on the House Republican Campaign Committee, told The Federalist. “The guy has this phony facade back in district, but he goes to Harrisburg, and he’s a complete enabler of the left-wing agenda. He voted for one of the most liberal speakers of the house to give Democrats control of the House … The most important vote that a legislature takes is when they vote for who the speaker is, and who’s going to control the calendar and what we’re voting on. He is directly responsible for all of the left wing votes that we’re getting out of the state house.”
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