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What If: Could the GOP abandon Trump and focus on Congress?

Since the 1970s, the share of voters who split their tickets-supporting one party for president and the other in Senate races-has steadily declined.

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WASHINGTON-A close ally of Donald Trump said talks about the cost of building a wall with Mexico was not supposed to be part of the discussion during Republican presidential candidate’s recent meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The twin failures were all the more disappointing because Trump’s campaign team had been signaling that the candidate might have been ready to back away from the insults and jingoistic rhetoric that have substituted for a thoughtful policy on immigration in general and U.S. -Mexico policy in particular. Neither will be easy.

Trump’s favour among Republicans has also bounced six percentage points to 78% over the past two weeks, despite controversial staff shake ups and his seemingly wavering stance on immigration.

The majority of voters also feels like Clinton’s and Trump’s outreach to minority groups is based on votes instead of actual attempts to help people: Sixty-five percent say that of Trump, while 64 percent say it of Clinton. “We want you to know that you do”, she said.

But those messages are competing against a long-term evolution in voters’ behavior that has made it tougher for all senators to survive in effect behind enemy lines-in states that usually prefer the other party for president. Third place was senior’s issues, with 14 percent of voters selecting that issue as most important, and health care at 12 percent. The debate, which will be moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, will nearly certainly draw the biggest audience of any presidential get-together in American history. No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio and Trump is trying to overcome some splintering in the state party, which was supportive of Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the presidential primary. Lauren Passalacqua, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said voters will dismiss Republicans as acting for pure self-preservation if they abandon Trump “and say, ‘You know what, forget that guy, I’ll be a real check on the president'”. That includes 85 percent of all young people, including about 9 in 10 Asian-Americans and Hispanics, along with more than 8 in 10 whites and African-Americans. That means he needs to live in those states for the next two months. In recent fundraising emails, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, GOP operative Karl Rove and a Colorado lawmaker battling for his seat made similar appeals. For example, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Friday showed Trump slightly ahead with support from 40 percent of likely voters, compared to 39 percent for Clinton, an effective tie that marks a huge plunge from the eight-point lead the Democratic candidate once enjoyed.

Trump’s immigration incoherence can’t be good for his prospects in Florida.

Reese Toney, 24, of Glen Allen, Virginia, said he was from a mixed race background, noting that he had Hispanic, Italian and African-American roots and his grandfather was originally from Mexico.

The Real Clear Politics polling average for the MI presidential election shows Clinton ahead in the state by 8.6 points, although a recent survey from Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation Project found Trump and Clinton running almost even in MI. With only two months to go until the November 8 election, he doesn’t have time to waste in states that aren’t on it.

Some talented, or well-entrenched, politicians have always defied these patterns and more undoubtedly will in 2016.

CNN noted their “latest Poll of Polls finds Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump has been cut in half, with her post-convention bump wilting in the late-summer heat”.

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Election law experts also said Mr Trump’s warnings of voter fraud today are largely unfounded. But with Trump lagging in most polls and Election Day two months off, many in the GOP view the strategy as low-risk because of the deep antipathy many Republicans hold toward Clinton. Those who do, he said, would be priorities for deportation.

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