Allen Alley (left) and Bud Pierce (right) are the leading GOP candidates for governor in Oregon.
Laurie Isola / OPB
Republican gubernatorial candidates Bud Pierce and Allen Alley speak with the caution of a bomb disposal expert when they’re asked about Donald Trump.
Pierce said in a May 10 debate on OPB's Think Out Loud that he will support the Republican presidential nominee. But the Salem doctor quickly added: "In no way am I buying into everything that he is."
Alley, a high-tech businessman, said he expects to support the “eventual nominee,” but leaves open the idea that the Republican convention delegates still might reject Trump.
“Those delegates can do whatever they want,” explained Alley, a former chair of the Oregon Republican Party. He added that Trump has said “some awful things” that he doesn’t support.
In his highly unorthodox campaign for president, Trump has rolled over and at times angered much of the Republican establishment. But now that he has vanquished his last Republican rivals, he’s posing a particular problem for GOP candidates running in Democratic-leaning states like Oregon.
Democratic operatives see how unpopular Trump is among women, minorities and many independent voters. And they’re already laying plans to closely tie their Republican rivals to the New York billionaire.
“It’s something people are seeing as a litmus test of what kind of Republican you are,” said Jared Leopold, communications director of the Democratic Governors Association. He can tell you in an instant how many Republican governors are supporting Trump — 23 out of 32 — and said, “A lot of their candidates are between a rock and a hard place.”
Republicans can already imagine the ads featuring side-by-side images of their candidates next to Trump.
"You're going to have Republican dog-catchers getting hit with mail pieces tying them to Trump," said Robert Jones, a Boise-based Republican consultant whose firm, GS Strategies Group, is working with Alley.
"In Oregon and in swing seats around the country, it's going to be a difficult balancing act," he said, for Republican candidates to answer the question: What do they think of Donald Trump?
While many Republicans may want to distance themselves from Trump, they also don’t want to alienate his supporters.
Both Alley and Pierce, for example, talk about how Trump is speaking to voters who are angry at the political establishment and want real change. They say they’re also addressing that desire for change.
Related: Greg Walden, Oregon's Sole Republican Congressman, Endorses Donald Trump
Trump is “manifesting an anger and a frustration with government in general,” Alley said. “And as somebody who wants to be a change agent … that atmosphere is a good atmosphere.”
Many top Republicans hope they can simply keep their races separate. House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, didn’t respond to interview requests this week. But aide Preston Mann said in a statement that House Republicans intend to stick with local issues.
“It can be easy to get caught up in the ins and outs of the national political conversation,” Mann said, “but allowing ourselves to do so distracts us from the very real issues we are dealing with here in Oregon.”
The top Republican in the state Senate, Ted Ferrioli of John Day, declines interviews to talk about Trump, according to spokeswoman Caitie Butler.
Former Rep. Dennis Richardson, who is seeking the Republican nomination for secretary of state, said he intends to remain neutral in the presidential race. He said people seeking to run the state's elections division should not take sides.
Richardson's main opponent for the Republican nomination is Lane County Commissioner Sid Leiken, who was one of few elected officials to show up at the Trump rally in Eugene on May 6.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks at a town hall in Portland on April 28, 2016, days before suspending his presidential campaign.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Leiken said John Kasich was his first choice but he's now comfortable supporting Trump.
“I’m not going to be one of those who can’t make up his mind,” he said.
Trump’s Oregon director, Jacob Daniels, said he wasn’t worried about how many GOP candidates are distancing themselves. Part of the Trump campaign’s philosophy, he said, “is we really don’t reach out to Republican candidates or elected officials.”
Jones, the Boise consultant, said it’s not unusual for Republican candidates in blue states to separate themselves from the national ticket. In 2008, then-Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., ran an ad talking about how well he had worked in the Senate with Barack Obama.
Smith ran well ahead of his party’s nominee, John McCain. But Smith lost by about 67,000 votes as he was swamped by Obama’s 300,000-vote victory in Oregon.
In that sense, the big question is whether Trump is willing to mount a big enough effort in Oregon to help down-ballot Republicans.
Daniels said Trump is “confident of his chances in Oregon,” but he said it’s too early to tell if he will target the state.