Four Democrats Most Likely to Pay the Price in 2018 for Opposing Gorsuch

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer indicated at his Monday press briefing that president Trump would support Republicans using the “nuclear option” in order to defeat a filibuster from the Democrats in order to confirm Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

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“We’re comfortable in the sense that obviously, that decision is up to Leader McConnell to make, how he wants the Senate to deal with this,” Spicer added when asked how the president felt on the issue.

“I think the majority leader’s comments are very clear in the direction that he’s headed in,” he continued.

Shortly after Spicer’s comments on Monday, CNN reported that Democrats secured enough votes to filibuster the nomination, putting Republicans in a situation to either go nuclear or allow Gorsuch’s nomination to be blocked.

Republicans are going to go nuclear (if they’re smart). Democrats that plan to vote against Gorsuch will be left vulnerable in 2018 when they are up for re-election.

Here are four Democratic senators who will be vulnerable in 2018 by voting “no” on confirming Gorsuch to the Supreme Court:

1. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana). Tester won his last election by 1.8 percentage points, showing that he is in major trouble of losing his seat in 2018. On top of that, Trump won his state by 20.1 percentage points in 2016, indicating Trump’s base could unseat Tester easily if they come out in full force.

2. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri). McCaskill won her last election by 15.5 percentage points, but Trump won the state of Missouri in the 2016 election by 18.5 points. Missouri leans to the right, and because she has a strong voting record against conservative agendas, the voters of Missouri could easily come out en masse to unseat her for voting “no” on Gorsuch.

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3. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida). Nelson won his last election by 13 percentage points, but Trump won the state in the 2016 election by 1.2 points. Winning Florida was a massive win for Trump, and it proved Republican voters would come out in massive waves when they need to. Trump could possibly direct his attention to Florida again and in order to unseat Nelson.

4. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Brown won his last election by 6 percentage points, but Trump won Ohio in the 2016 election by 8.1 points. Like the state of Florida, Trump proved he could rally the base and get them out to vote in record numbers.

What’s more, the state of Ohio is continuing to become more conservative. Last year, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) was projected to be in a very close race, but he won by 21.4 percentage points. Trump would be smart to galvanize the grassroots organizations and capitalize on this opportunity to push Ohio closer to being a red-state for many future elections.

When Trump sticks with and supports the Tea Party and grassroots organizations, he is able to accomplish many things.

If Trump would throw his support behind unseating these Democrats, he would give Republicans a strong chance of increasing their donor bases and drawing more support for people that will come out and vote.

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“10 Democratic senators are running for re-election in states Trump carried last November. Trump won half of those states — Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia — by double digits,” Chris Cillizza said.

“That means that 20 percent of all Democratic seats up in 2018 are in states Trump won by double digits and 40 percent are in states that the president-elect carried last November.”

2018 could be a record year for Republicans if they take advantage.

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