A page on the campaign website of Republican Eric Pratt, a candidate in Minnesota’s open 2nd Congressional District, included what appears to be a stray instruction. It said, “The President is not popular,” and directed that all messaging stick to local issues. The line no longer appears on the site.
Social media users shared the line from the “Pratt Playbook” page and said it looks like an AI prompt. The sentence goes right after “common sense” in the intro to the playbook’s themes of affordability, accountability, and safe communities.
Wayback Machine copies show the line on October 10 and October 13, but it’s no longer on the October 20 copy.
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President Donald Trump’s endorsement was a top prize in this year’s Republican primaries, and candidates he backed beat Sens. John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas Massie. Now Republicans in competitive races have tried to keep him at arm’s length.
A review of 62 competitive House and Senate races found candidates in 41 split with him on a policy or minimized their ties. A dozen scrubbed his name, image or endorsement from campaign sites, mostly after winning nominations. Most splits involved single issues such as the Iran war and data centers, and few candidates criticized him directly.
Trump has urged rally crowds to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot”, but his party’s TV ads largely leave him out. A New York Times analysis of AdImpact data found that Republicans put under 1% of their House and Senate TV ad money into spots that mention him from September 9 through October 17. In the primaries, they put in 55%.
National polls put his approval between 31% and 36%, and one found only 47% of non-MAGA Republicans approve, against 95% of MAGA Republicans. Republican pollster Whit Ayres said a president with approval in the 30s does not help a campaign that needs 50% of the vote.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in Michigan as the Republican nominee, called in an ad this month for an end to the tariff war with Canada, and Florida candidate Mike Beltran removed a Trump photo from his campaign homepage.
The White House disputes this trend, not surprisingly. Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, described Trump as “the unequivocal leader,” and the Republican National Committee says the party stands united behind his agenda.
Pratt, a Republican from Prior Lake who has won four state Senate elections, faces Democrat Matt Little, a former state senator, for the seat Rep. Angie Craig gave up to run for Senate. Voters decide November 3. Little has called Pratt’s politics “quiet extremism” and hinted at a tie to Trump. Pratt dismissed that as silly and called himself an independent voice.
