President Donald Trump, whose approval ratings remain low across numerous polls, has pressed ahead with a high-profile role in this fall's midterm campaign — despite reports that many GOP insiders would prefer he keep a lower profile until after the November elections. According to Washington Post reporters Clara Ence Morse, Gregory S. Schneider and Theodoric Meyer, Republican congressional candidates are largely "ignoring" the president's advice for the midterms. The gap carries particular weight in a midterm cycle, in which the president is not on the ballot and the party holding the White House has historically seen its congressional standing tested at the polls.

"President Donald Trump handed Republicans what he said was a surefire formula for winning the midterm elections this fall: Act as if Trump is on the ballot and promise $5000 payouts to every citizen," Morse, Schneider and Meyer report in the Washington Post. "A week after the Republican midterm convention where Trump delivered his advice, most GOP congressional candidates are ignoring it, a Washington Post analysis of more than a social media posts by politicians found. Republican candidates are sticking to their own messages, not Trump's, as they navigate an increasingly difficult political landscape marked by high consumer prices, a protracted war in Iran and a president whose own approval rating has stayed stubbornly low, the analysis shows."

According to the Post journalists, many GOP candidates have declined to treat the Republican Midterm Convention as their blueprint, even though Trump wants them to. The president had proposed the unprecedented convention as a way to rally the party's supporters, who polls indicate have been unenthusiastic about voting. The Post's analysis suggests that, for the most part, Republican candidates have not attempted to harness whatever direction came out of the two-day convention in Dallas. The dynamic echoes a familiar pattern in midterm politics, when candidates in competitive races have historically weighed how closely to align themselves with a president whose approval ratings are low.

At the start of the year, Republican politicians mentioned Trump or the MAGA movement in roughly one in six of their online posts or podcasts. Some Republican candidates have removed mentions of Trump from their websites, while candidates in many competitive races declined to attend the convention. The candidates still talking substantially about Trump after the convention, according to the Post, are Democrats — who are mentioning him in about 20 percent of their posts so far this week.

Trump's marquee proposal — a pledge to send $5000 payments to American citizens if Republicans keep their majorities in Congress — attracted widespread attention during and after he announced it in his September 10 speech from the convention floor. But Democrats were more likely than Republicans to discuss the plan, with most attacking it as an unfulfillable, corrupt promise. Heading into the November elections, the Post's analysis of more than a million social media posts offers a measurable baseline for tracking whether Republican messaging moves closer to, or further from, the president's playbook in the campaign's final stretch.

Source: Alternet — Trump has a midterms game plan — Republicans are 'ignoring' it: analysis