'It is a bleak picture right now': Republicans fear losing senate over COVID response

After the US identified as the new epicentre for COVID-19, the country's response to the pandemic has brought its President Donald Trump on the crosshair of criticisms, Republicans are worried about losing the Senate this fall as rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters threatens their electoral ambitions.  

The Washing Post reports that Republican senators have become wary of their strategies adopted in recent weeks to fight the coronavirus outbreak as the weights seem to be shifting in favour of Democrats.

"It is a bleak picture right now all across the map, to be honest with you," said one Republican strategist closely involved in Senate races who spoke with the Post on condition of anonymity.

"This whole conversation is a referendum on Trump, and that is a bad place for Republicans to be. But it's also not a forever place," he told the Post further.

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Although experts have opined that once the pandemic and the presidential campaign returns to normal, the Republican candidates will recover the threatened grounds, the normalcy seems to be farfetched given the rising death toll in the country and the economic gloom.

The future of the Republic Senate depends solely on the future course of action by Trump in handling the crisis. 

In short, as goes Trump, so probably goes the Senate majority, the newspaper stated. 

"The political environment is not as favourable as it was a few months ago," another Republican told the Post.

Meanwhile, Democrats have planned to attack GOP senators for their opposition to the increasingly popular Affordable Care Act, with 2020 marking the first Senate elections where Democrats can target a large swath of Republicans for votes early in the Trump presidency to repeal the health law.

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"Democrats have expanded the Senate map and put Mitch McConnell's majority at risk with impressive challengers, record-breaking grass-roots fundraising, and a focus on the issues that matter most to voters like defending coverage protections for preexisting conditions," Stewart Boss, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was quoted as saying.

Republican senators, on the other hand, are trying to assert the powers of incumbency -- contending they are doing their jobs effectively for constituents during the pandemic -- as they run public-service-announcement style campaigns, the Post reported.

(With ANI inputs)