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WASHINGTON. – With Donald Trump’s US election prospects dimming and controversy swirling around him, future Republican presidential hopefuls may be weighing whether standing by their man is the savvy move.Party strategists fear voters fleeing Trump will also fail to support Republican candidates for the US Senate and House of Representatives, possibly costing the party control of Congress. If Trump loses the November 8 presidential election to Democrat Hillary Clinton, his polarising candidacy may reverberate well past 2016, tarring future Republican White House hopefuls, potentially including House Speaker Paul Ryan, US Senator Marco Rubio and Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

Trump was struggling in opinion polls before a 2005 video released last week showed him talking in sexually aggressive terms about seducing women. Afterward came stories in several news outlets alleging Trump had inappropriately touched women. Trump has angrily denounced the stories, the media and Republicans who have declined to support him.

“The brand has already been irrevocably damaged. There’s nothing we can do in the short term,” said Doug Heye, a former top official with the Republican National Committee. Looking to the 2018 US congressional election and the 2020 presidential election, Heye said: “In two to four years, the stain on our party’s soul won’t be washed away.”

To be sure, a Trump loss is no guarantee the Republicans would suffer for long. Four years after Barry Goldwater’s massive loss in 1964, Richard Nixon staged a Republican comeback. The conservative Heritage Foundation think thank has said Goldwater launched a shift to the right that would end half a century of liberal dominance in American politics. – Reuters