WASHINGTON _ National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden said it's up to congressional candidates to determine how best to deal with the party's presumptive presidential nominee.
Speaking at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Friday, Walden said candidates need to make their own decisions on whether to embrace or disavow Donald Trump.
Many Republican congressional candidates in tight races like Rep. Robert J. Dold of Illinois and Rep. Carlos Curbelo have said they wouldn't support Trump despite him being the presumptive Republican nominee and others say they will skip the party's convention later this month.
"We don't run a cookie-cutter campaign that sets out any kind of mandates or requirements across the country to tell every candidate to do this, that or the other," Walden said.
NRCC Executive Director Rob Simms said Democratic congressional candidates have a similar issue with Hillary Clinton, their party's likely nominee.
"There are two sides to this presidential dynamic," he said.
Simms specifically mentioned targeted Democrats Rep. Rick Nolan of Minnesota, who supported Clinton's primary opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Nebraska Rep. Brad Ashford, who was previously a Republican and an independent.
Walden also said it would be fine for Republicans to release advertisements critical of Donald Trump.
"We don't control the content of their ads," he said. "They're going to do what they need to do to represent the voters in their districts."
