Hush money verdict tests Senate candidates' approach to Trump

Donald Trump's guilty verdict in his New York hush money case is turning into one of the first major tests for Senate candidates trying to navigate the tumult of running alongside the polarizing former president.

Republican candidates across Senate battlegrounds rallied around Trump after a New York jury found him guilty last week on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, with many criticizing the case as "election interference," "a sham," "rigged," and "political persecution."

Yet, while Republicans are rushing to embrace Trump, many Democrats want to focus on their own states and other issues instead of making a meal out of the guilty verdict, facing an uncertain political landscape and the knowledge that they'll need Trump voters to back them, too, in key races.

At least two Republican candidates launched new ads on Monday looking to leverage the verdict even more in their races.

Republican Tim Sheehy launched a new spot saying his likely opponent, Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, "supported Joe Biden’s witch hunt every step of the way.” The ad will air on TV, according to a source familiar with the strategy.

In Ohio, Republican Bernie Moreno

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that criticizes Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown for "refusing to condemn Biden’s politically motivated witch hunt."

It's no coincidence that Moreno and Sheehy are leaning into the verdict to fire up Trump's supporters in Ohio and Montana. Both states are among Republicans’ best opportunities to flip Senate seats this year, after the open seat in West Virginia — Trump carried Montana by 16 points and Ohio by 8 points in 2020. The GOP needs a net gain of two seats to take control of the chamber (or one seat if Trump wins the