The GOP strategy: Ignore Trump

At a Vivek Ramaswamy town hall in Parma, Ohio, the Republican candidate for governor took the stage and delivered a speech that could have been given in any election year since 2016. He talked about free enterprise, parental control over education, and the administrative state. He did not mention Donald Trump. Not once. This was not an accident. It was the strategy.

The ostrich approach

Republicans are in a bind. Donald Trump is unpopular nationally, prices are up, and the Iran war drags on. Polls show Democrats favored to retake the Senate. And yet, as MSNBC's Michael Schnell reports, many Republican candidates are simply disappearing from public view—skipping debates, avoiding press conferences, canceling town halls. They are, as the reporting puts it, hiding behind a "cone of silence."

But Ramaswamy is doing something different. He's still campaigning aggressively, holding fairs and rallies all summer. He just refuses to talk about the president. When the reporter's team asked voters whether it surprised them that Trump's name never came up, one attendee replied: "No, because Donald Trump ain't running the campaign. Vivek Ramaswamy." Another said: "No, because it's his own governor race."

The voters are conflicted