Coattails: Clinton, Trump provide short coattails this election year

In most presidential election years candidates further down on the ticket can expect to get some help by hanging from the so-called "coattails" of the upper echelon candidates.

Not so this year.

The relative unpopularity of both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump with many voters provides mighty short coattails for any congressional or statehouse candidate to hold onto. In fact, many such candidates are purposely keeping their distance from the two presidential hopefuls for fear that associating with them might prove disastrous come Election Day.

To be sure, there are candidates who are embracing either Clinton or Trump wholeheartedly and who have either appeared on the campaign trail with them or have purposely associated their name with the big campaigns.

But the latter is a gamble. Too many people have expressed their doubts about the ability of either Clinton or Trump to lead the nation for their coattails to reach very far down.

Published in Editorials on August 30, 2016 10:19 AM