Margaret Carlson, Columnist

New Hampshire's Ayotte Can't Shake Off Trump

The Republican senator's contortions to support the presidential nominee without endorsing him have become untenable.

October 17, 2016 at 5:16 PM UTC

Margaret Carlson was a White House correspondent for Time, a weekly panelist on CNN’s “Capital Gang” and an editor at the New Republic.

Time to get some distance.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Few Republican candidates have been flummoxed more by Donald Trump’s presence at the top of the ticket than Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

Running for a second term against Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan, Ayotte has the party’s presidential nominee wrapped around her neck. Hassan, by contrast, has Michelle Obama, the country’s most popular political figure, by her side. At a rally last week, Hassan introduced the first lady, who delivered one of the most powerful speeches of this election, excoriating Trump as a force for evil, whose candidacy, behavior and rhetoric had “shaken me to my core.”