Westneat: Reichert does Trump shuffle

Yet at a GOP meet and greet last week, Reichert said excitement is “happening all across America. Groups like us meeting, and hearing a message that needs to be delivered. With some encouragement to people that we can … we can …” — and here he looked to the right, then to the left, as if to check if anyone was listening — “make America great again!”

The crowd went bananas. Reichert looked relieved to have said Trump’s campaign slogan out loud. For that night at least, he was fully welcome at his party’s big party.

Why do local Republicans contort themselves like this? A new survey by Seattle pollster Stuart Elway captures how Trump’s presence has created a sort of GOP torture machine.

It’s no surprise Trump will probably get walloped here by Kamala Harris. Elway’s poll for Cascade PBS found her ahead by 25 percentage points. So Elway also asked: Why are you voting this way? Is it an affirmative vote for your candidate? Or is it more to block the other side from the White House?

By a 2-to-1 margin, 50 percent to 25 percent, Harris voters said they’re voting against Trump rather than for Harris. (The rest said it was a mix.) By a nearly 3-to-1 margin, 58 percent to 21 percent, Trump voters said the opposite. They aren’t particularly focused on Harris. They just love Trump.

“The Democrats are heavily driven by what we call ‘negative partisanship,’ ” Elway said. “Trump has united the Democratic Party in a way that they couldn’t do themselves.”

It’s true. In this state, put a “D” next to your name on the ballot, bash the heck out of Trump and coast from there. Polls show this is working for Democrats, with their candidates ahead in all nine partisan statewide races — unusually far ahead, in some cases.

For Republicans like Reichert, though, it’s excruciating. You can’t dance with Trump. But neither can you outright jilt him. Not when your own party is head over heels.

The GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, Dr. Raul Garcia, dodges the Trump question, averring that “it takes away from me as a candidate.” Jaime Herrera Beutler, who is running for lands commissioner, also brushes off questions about him, even though she voted to impeach Trump when she was in Congress. That has endeared her enough to non-GOP voters that she’s the only one who is close in the polls. But she isn’t talking about it.

More than a year ago, I wrote about the GOP’s reembrace of Trump: “In three decades covering local politics I’ve never seen a group just keep punching itself in the face, over and over, knowing that it’s bloodying any chances it has in the next election, but punching away nonetheless.” On the other side, though, I wonder: Is “stop Trump” enough to sustain and carry Democrats?

In Washington state, it definitely is, Elway says.

“This election has turned out to be about Trump for both sides — again,” he said.

The swing states are a different beast. Harris has done as well as Democrats probably could have hoped, given her late entry into the race. In a battle of negative versus positive partisanship, who wins?

Me, I long for the day when elections are about something again, not just someone. Especially this someone. I bet dancing Dave Reichert does, too.