Donald Trump

In Red State Primaries, Candidates Out-Trump Each Other

After Tuesday, the Senate races will cast an eye toward November's general election

Tuesday's primary votes will tell us if the strategy of GOP Senate candidates boasting who supports President Donald Trump more was successful, but some key numbers in the states explain all the one-Trumpsmanship — at least for primary season. 

Trump performed 9 points better than Romney in Indiana and 15 points better than Romney in West Virginia, NBC News reported. Both states are rich in a voter group that was especially good to Trump in 2016 and who stand strongly behind him still: working class whites. Whites without a college degree make up 61 percent of the 25-and-older population in Indiana and a remarkable 74 percent of that group in West Virginia. Nationally, the figure for that group is only about 42 percent.

So, those two numbers make a pretty good argument for Republicans staying as close as they can to the president in those states - particularly when you consider that each state has three legitimate GOP candidates dividing the vote.

But after Tuesday, the Senate races in both those states will cast an eye toward November's general election, and there the I'm-with-Trump strategy could get a little more complicated even in places that appear to be deep Trump country.

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