washington<u+2014>senate republicans fighting to retain control of the chamber in november<u+2019>s elections began breaking with their party<u+2019>s presidential nominee on saturday in response to donald trump <u+2019>s lewd comments about women. republicans already face a narrow path to keeping the chamber<u+2019>s majority, a challenge that immediately became more difficult over the weekend as mr. trump<u+2019>s remarks about women in a 2005 video that surfaced friday threatened to weigh down gop senators waging tight re-election fights in battleground states. cognizant of the threat that their vulnerable gop incumbents face from an increasingly imperiled presidential nominee, senior gop senators began to withdraw their support from mr. trump friday night and their ranks grew on saturday. sen. john thune of south dakota, a member of the senate gop leadership, called on mr. trump to withdraw from the race and for his running-mate, indiana gov. mike pence to replace him. sen. mike lee (r., utah) also called on mr. trump to step aside, as did<u+00a0>rep. joe heck of nevada, who is vying for that state<u+2019>s senate seat being vacated by democratic leader harry reid. several other gop senators, including sens. kelly ayotte of new hampshire and mike crapo of idaho said they wouldn<u+2019>t vote for mr. trump. <u+201c>i cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women,<u+201d> ms. ayotte said in a statement saturday. the new hampshire republican is locked in a tight re-election race against her state<u+2019>s governor, democrat maggie hassan. ms. ayotte said she wouldn<u+2019>t be voting for either mr. trump or his democratic opponent, hillary clinton, and would instead write in mr. pence for president. on friday, video from 2005 surfaced in which mr. trump speaks in crude sexual terms about women, talking about groping them and making advances on a married woman. mr. trump apologized for his remarks friday night and said saturday that he wouldn<u+2019>t drop out of the race. after months of interspersing support for their party<u+2019>s nominee with condemnation of some of mr. trump<u+2019>s remarks, many senate republicans were no longer willing to defend a candidate increasingly likely to be a drag on gop incumbents in tight races. strategists said gop senate incumbents and candidates needed to do whatever is necessary to win their own races. <u+201c>senate republicans all need to click into survival mode....every man and woman for themselves now,<u+201d> said scott reed, senior political strategist at the u.s. chamber of commerce. on friday night, rob engstrom, the chamber<u+2019>s national political director, said mr. trump should step down immediately, to be replaced by mr. pence. mr. lee issued a statement after midnight edt friday saying mr. trump should step aside as the nominee. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s time for us not to settle; it<u+2019>s time for us to expect more,<u+201d> said mr. lee, calling on mr. trump to <u+201c>allow someone else to carry to banner<u+201d> of gop principles. in rust belt states, which are home to the working-class, white voters who have flocked to mr. trump, republican senators criticized the gop candidates but didn<u+2019>t call for him to step down. <u+201c>donald trump<u+2019>s comments were outrageous and unacceptable,<u+201d> wrote sen. pat toomey (r., pa.), who for months has said he hasn<u+2019>t decided whether to endorse mr. trump. earlier in the week, mr. toomey had complained about what he saw as mr. trump<u+2019>s vulgarity and gratuitous insults. <u+201c>his comments were offensive and wrong,<u+201d> said sen. rob portman (r., ohio), who has long noted that he backed ohio gov. john kasich in the republican presidential primary. alaska<u+2019>s two republican senators, both said in statements saturday that mr. trump should no longer be the party<u+2019>s nominee. sen. dan sullivan said mr. pence should replace mr. trump. republicans currently hold 54 of the senate<u+2019>s 100 seats. to take back control of the chamber, democrats must win a net of five seats, or four if mrs. clinton wins the white house and the vice president can cast a tiebreaking vote. some gop senators indicated they were looking to sunday<u+2019>s town-hall style debate between mr. trump and mrs. clinton before making a decision. sen. bob corker (r., tenn.) said in a statement that he, like others, was <u+201c>trying to determine the most responsible manner in which to conduct ourselves and move our country forward.<u+201d> he said he would be watching the debate <u+201c>very closely.<u+201d> senate majority leader mitch mcconnell (r., ky.) called mr. trump<u+2019>s comments <u+201c>repugnant, and unacceptable in any circumstance<u+201d> but didn<u+2019>t comment friday night on whether he should remain the race. sens. chuck grassley of iowa and john mccain of arizona condemned mr. trump<u+2019>s remarks but didn<u+2019>t say he had lost their vote. <u+201c>there are no excuses for donald trump<u+2019>s offensive and demeaning comments,<u+201d> mr. mccain said in a statement. <u+201c>he alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences.<u+201d> democrats said it was an empty gesture for republicans to criticize mr. trump without rescinding their support. but democrats also said voters would be wary of gop senators, including ms. ayotte, who only decided to split with trump now after the latest uproar. just in the past week, ms. ayotte had said she would consider mr. trump a good role model for children, before retracting the remarks later that night. <u+201c>senator ayotte<u+2019>s career has been one political stunt after another, and today<u+2019>s decision is no different. just days after calling trump a <u+2018>role model<u+2019> she is now attempting the most politically craven effort at self-preservation that we<u+2019>ve seen,<u+201d> tom lopach, the executive director of senate democrats<u+2019> campaign arm, said in a statement saturday. <u+201c>the time for courage has passed, and senator ayotte solidified her role in trump<u+2019>s party long ago.<u+201d> write to kristina peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and siobhan hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com
senate republicans begin breaking from  donald trump - wsj
kristina peterson siobhan hughes