Trump-Backed Candidate Purges President From Campaign Website

Trump-Backed Candidate Purges President From Campaign Website

A Republican House candidate backed by President Donald Trump has scrubbed his campaign website of all prominent references to the president after winning his primary earlier this year.

Former Kentucky state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, the Republican nominee for the state's 6th Congressional District, revamped his website sometime between June 9 and Aug. 24, according to screenshots and a report published Tuesday by NBC News' Sahil Kapur.

Alvarado's homepage previously branded him an "AMERICA FIRST FIGHTER" and declared, "President Trump needs more allies in Congress to deliver on his bold vision to Make America Great Again. With your help, I will be that fighter."

The site now touts "RALPH ALVARADO: INDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP" and emphasizes healthcare, affordability, and working across the aisle.

Alvarado's biography also received an overhaul. A photo showing him posing alongside Trump was removed from the homepage, as were passages describing him as "one of President Trump's earliest supporters" and a "national leader in the America First movement."

Trump endorsed Alvarado before his primary election in May, calling him "a true friend to MAGA" and offering his "Complete and Total Endorsement." He added, "GET OUT AND VOTE FOR RALPH -- HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"

Alvarado campaign manager Andy Westberry pushed back on the significance of the website changes, though, telling Kapur, "The socialists are going to have to do a lot better than this nonsense to win this district. We've proudly touted the endorsement, and our website still features a photo of Ralph with President Trump."

Democratic nominee Zach Dembo, on the other hand, accused his opponent of changing his tune for political reasons.

"My opponent's at it again, claiming to be Trump's guy when it helped him, then deleting any mention of the President from his site because the latest poll told him he should," Dembo told NBC News. "It reeks of a career politician's desperation."

As Kapur wrote in his above X post, he sees the changes as "a sign of how Trump's declining approval is complicating things for Republicans, even in districts he won handily."

A Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted Aug. 21-24, found Trump's overall approval among Republicans remained high at 82%, but just 35% said they "strongly approved" of his job performance. Among all respondents, only 13% strongly approved, figures CNN's Aaron Blake noted were particularly weak for the president.

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