Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn wants to ride the president's coattails to the Senate.
The Perils of the Trump Cult
NASHVILLE — Few candidates have lashed themselves to President Donald Trump quite like Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, the Republican Party’s choice to succeed Bob Corker in the Senate. Consider the scene at a rally in Nashville in May, where both candidate and president stood on stage together.
“Tennessee needs a senator who is going to support Donald Trump, and I am going to be there to stand with President Donald Trump and take your Tennessee values to Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Blackburn told the cheering crowd. While Mr. Trump compared the MS-13 gang to animals and incited a crowd with red-meat topics like a border wall with Mexico and Hillary Clinton’s emails, Ms. Blackburn was at his side, smiling.
And that’s more or less where the Republican Party stands as well, lashed to an unpredictable president. It’s true nationwide, but nowhere is this shift as clearly on display as in the South. There, home to a large chunk of his base, prospective candidates have little choice but to get on board or get out of politics. Even Mark Sanford, a conservative congressman from South Carolina who dared to voice the slightest occasional criticism of the president, was beaten in a primary by a candidate who promised absolute loyalty to Mr. Trump.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/opinion/the-perils-of-the-trump-cult.html?