Senate Republicans see brighter prospects for keeping majority

WASHINGTON — Republicans’ chances of holding the U.S. Senate are improving considerably, thanks to Hillary Clinton’s sliding popularity, strong campaigns by Republican candidates and a GOP fundraising surge.

“The now-tight presidential race suggests that perhaps Clinton could pull off a narrow victory that still allows the GOP to hold the Senate,” wrote Larry Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley of the University of Virginia Center for Politics as they moved four Senate races in the Republicans’ direction.

The shift marks a dramatic reversal for Senate Democrats, who have gone from hoping for an anti-Trump-fueled electoral wave to insisting that their darkening poll numbers, dragged down by Clinton’s unpopularity, aren’t accurate.

“The big Republican donors that give dark money, the Koch brothers and all the rest of them, they’re panicky about Donald Trump, so they’re all in with Mitch McConnell and Republican senators,” Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said last week, referring to the Senate majority leader.