After he told The Hill he’d be a “friend of Obama” if elected to the Senate, South Dakota independent Senate candidate Larry Pressler clarified on Twitter he has friends in both parties.
{mosads}”I am friends with [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] as well — this is why I’m running — no need for everyone to be enemies,” he tweeted on Thursday.
Pressler hasn’t said which party he’d caucus with in the Senate if elected; Republicans seized on Pressler’s comments to The Hill during a Wednesday interview as evidence that the former Republican senator is simply a Democrat masquerading as an independent.
Recent polling has shown Pressler surging and threatening to overtake former Gov. Mike Rounds (R). The Republican has emerged as unexpectedly weak in the deep-red state due to his ties to the scandal surrounding a state program that offered foreigners visas in exchange for investments in local projects, which Democrats say he mismanaged and misused.
The Democratic candidate in the race, former Senate aide Rick Weiland, has remained static and came in third in the last survey, behind Pressler. Republicans are hoping President Obama’s unpopularity in the deep-red state will drag both Weiland and Pressler down, and give Rounds a path to victory.