WASHINGTON _ As it appears increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton will be the next president, many conservative outside groups are stressing the importance of keeping control of the Senate as a check on her presidency.
Senate Leadership Fund is putting $25 million into six key Senate races in an effort to counter Democrats focusing their firepower on down-ballot races, a spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.
An ad from the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action warns that former Sen. Evan Bayh, who's running against Rep. Todd Young in Indiana, would help Clinton fill another seat on the Supreme Court.
Similarly, an ad from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promoting Sen. Kelly Ayotte's re-election in New Hampshire opens with an empty debate stage and the White House.
"No matter who the next president is, New Hampshire needs a strong voice in the U.S. Senate," the narrator says.
The Chamber has clashed with Trump, particularly on the issue of free trade.
An ad from the Senate Leadership Fund targeted against Missouri Democrat Jason Kander says "one Hillary in Washington would be bad enough," and another ad of the fund calls him a "carbon copy liberal."
The SLF will spend $7.5 million on the Heck race and $5 million in Pennsylvania, where challenger Katie McGinty and incumbent Republican Sen. Patrick J. Toomey are running neck and neck.
The SLF released an ad this week hitting McGinty for supposed corruption, including giving money to companies that paid her husband. The ad says "hundreds of Pennsylvanians got screwed while McGinty got rich."
It also plans to spend $4 million on the Bayh-Young race in Indiana and smaller amounts in Missouri, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
The SLF released an ad hitting North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr's Democratic challenger Deborah Ross, claiming that during her time as director of the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union she supposedly did not support a veterans' right to fly a flag but opposed a ban on flag burning.
