The Republican majority is in trouble. Does the GOP want Trump’s help saving it?

Republicans will deploy him with care, using him to raise money and record robo-calls targeted to GOP voters in some districts while landing Air Force One for major public rallies in others.

“There’s no one-size-fits all approach,” said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the NRCC. “He obviously does have a really high approval rating among our base.”

Part of the difference is regional: Republicans are defending clusters of coastal-state districts in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and other states where Trump may be more hindrance than help, but Democrats will have to win some interior-state districts where he is generally more popular to take control of the House.

That dichotomy can be seen in the 7th districts of New Jersey and Texas. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by a little more than a percentage point in each of them. But the incumbent Republicans in those seats — Leonard Lance of New Jersey and John Culberson of Texas — have taken very different approaches to the question of what a Trump visit would mean for them.

“He lost the district by 3,800 votes in 2016, and I had the honor of winning the district by 38,000 votes,” Lance said in the lobby outside the House chamber Thursday as he distanced himself from the president. “I’ll be judged based upon my positions on public policy. As you may know, I didn’t vote for the health care bill and I did not vote for the tax bill.”

He said he neither expects nor wants Trump to lend a hand.

“I have never asked for help from national figures. I have always campaigned on my own and will do so again this year,” he said, explaining why the president might not be as effective for him as for other Republicans. “The district is different from certain Midwestern districts — it’s a classic East Coast suburban district.”

It’s also different from the 7th District of Texas, where Culberson represents a portion of Houston and some of it’s wealthiest suburbs — the difference between the district’s mean household income ($114,506) and its median household income ($71,183) is the largest in the state.

Typically, the votes of suburban Republicans outweigh those of Democrats across the district. But their reluctance to back Trump in 2016 tipped the balance to Clinton in a longtime Republican stronghold.

Culberson, who won his own race with 56 percent of the vote in 2016, says the president has become more popular with his Republican constituents over time.

“President Trump has fulfilled every one of his campaign promises and made extraordinary progress in achieving his goals in his very first year in office,” Culberson said in an interview with NBC News. “There’s a lot of good things to talk about.”

Standing in a Capitol hallway Wednesday, he pulled out his smartphone and thumbed through open web browsers to land at a tally of the Republicans and Democrats who voted in the primary in his district earlier this month.

Though the Democratic primary was competitive, about 5,000 more people voted in the GOP primary. The key to his race, against the winner of a Democratic runoff between Laura Moser and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, is getting Republicans to the polls, he said.

That’s where Trump can help.

“Vice President Pence, President Trump, I hope they come to Texas often and regularly,” Culberson said. “They would both be, I think, an asset to the entire Republican ticket.”

White House officials did not reply to requests for comment on this story.

Among Republicans, Trump’s help is seen as having higher risk and higher potential reward than that of Pence, a far safer surrogate who can also help raise money and energize Republican voters without generating the same variety of headlines — and Democratic backlash — as Trump.

It’s not just Republicans who think Trump’s midterm appeal is a mixed bag.

“There are swing districts all over the country, and each district is pretty unique, so I don’t know that there’s a blanket answer,” said Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., the vice chair of the Democratic Caucus. “Certainly there are groups that are more motivated to turn out and I think that’s why we’re seeing increased enthusiasm on the Democratic side. Will that happen in every swing district? I don’t know.”

The early returns suggest that Republicans have a tightrope to walk in using Trump to rally GOP voters without sparking Democratic turnout.

In seven special House elections since Trump’s victory, Democrats have gained between three points (in Utah’s 3rd District( and 23 points (in Kansas’s 4th District.) And, in a race unique because of allegations of sexual misconduct against Republican nominee Roy Moore — claims the candidate denied — Democrats won a December special Senate election in Alabama, a state where Trump had won by nearly 30 percentage points in 2016.

While the GOP narrowly lost the most recent special House election — held earlier this month in Pennsylvania’s 18th District — some Republicans credit Trump’s stretch-run visit with closing the gap between Democratic Rep.-elect Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone.

Then again, the district, where Trump won by about 20 percentage points in 2016, was only competitive in the first place because Democrats were energized and unified by their opposition to the president.

Republican Rep. Pete King, who represents a safe district on Long Island, said his colleagues have to find ways to localize politics at a time when the national political environment isn’t good for Republicans.

“Stress where you agree and where you disagree,” King said. “There’s no magic formula.”

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March For Our Lives: Six key takeaways from the US gun control rallies

It was the biggest gun control protest in a generation. Hundreds of rallies were staged across the US and beyond as marchers filled the streets calling for the implementation of tighter measures following the deadly mass shooting at a Florida school in February.

That incident not only ignited the #NeverAgain movement, but also Saturday’s mass demonstrations, which took place under the banner of March For Our Lives.

With events not just in the US but as far afield as London, Paris, Mauritius, Tokyo, Stockholm, Sydney, Geneva and Berlin, the day was made up of powerful messages delivered by articulate students and children, most of whom have already in some way experienced gun violence.

Here are six key moments from some of the biggest US rallies since the Vietnam War era.

1. Survivor shows the power of silence

One of the most emotionally charged moments came when Emma Gonzalez, one of the student survivors of the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, took to the podium in Washington DC.

Ms Gonzalez, who has been at the forefront of the recent student-led protests, delivered a powerful speech in which she listed the 17 people killed at her school before she fell silent for several minutes.

When an alarm beeped, she switched it off and noted that six minutes and 20 seconds had passed since she first took the stage, saying they represented the exact time it took the gunman to kill her classmates.

The crowd erupted into chants of “Emma, Emma” as she left the stage.

2. MLK’s granddaughter also has a dream

The nine-year-old granddaughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, Yolanda Renee King, touched the large crowds as she shared her “dream” in a surprise appearance.

“I have a dream that enough is enough,” she said, referencing her grandfather’s famous I Have a Dream speech on ending racism, which was delivered in 1963 close to where she now stood.

“That this should be a gun-free world – period,” she added.

• As it happened: March For Our Lives
• In pictures: Marches across the US and worldwide
• Why marching is important

She then told those gathered to “spread the word all across the nation” as they roared in support.

3. Girl, 11, inspires America

She may only be 11, but Naomi Wadler’s strong voice at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington DC is still reverberating across the US.

The fifth grader from Alexandria, Virginia, said she represented African-American girls ignored by the media and suffering from gun violence.

“I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African-American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper or lead on the evening news,” she said.

She added that she represented those who are “simply statistics” instead of “vibrant, beautiful girls who are full of potential”.

4. Sandy Hook survivors say ‘thank you’

They were children when a gunman opened fire at their primary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012.

But on Saturday, the survivors of the school massacre that claimed the lives of 27 people, arrived on the streets of Washington DC as teenagers to join the Parkland survivors.

“America, I am pleading with you to realise this is not OK,” said Matthew Soto, whose sister was killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook. “Show those that say our lives are not more important than a gun that we are important,” he added.

Speaking before the march, Sandy Hook survivor Dalton Milgram said: “It’s happening so often.”

His sister, Lauran, added that such incidents should never happen, saying they were “just too consistent” and “needed to stop”.

Their parents, Erin and Eric Milgram, said: “To the Parkland kids, thank you for not letting anyone silence you.”

• The teenagers taking on the US gun lobby
• ‘It feels like the world is on our side’
• Student’s chilling encounter with gunman

5. Celebrities lend their support

For those in need of help, for those in need of somebody, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney was on hand at the march in New York, Manhattan, to make a stand for what he said was a personal stake in the gun control debate.

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Reuters

“One of my best friends was shot not far from here,” he said, referring to John Lennon, who was gunned down near the park in 1980.

Kim Kardashian West and her husband, rapper Kanye West, flew into Washington DC to join the main demonstration.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, and Demi Lovato were among a number of entertainers to perform at the DC rally.

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EPA

Jennifer Hudson, whose mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew were all shot dead in 2008, performed a cover version of the Bob Dylan song The Times They Are a-Changin’.

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Others present at the march in DC included the actor George Clooney, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, director Steven Spielberg, author Stephen King, TV host Ellen DeGeneres, late-night show host Jimmy Fallon and singer Cher.

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6. Signs that grabbed attention

Signs carried by protesters included strong messages criticising lawmakers who oppose tougher laws, with many also attacking the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful US gun lobby.

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Others included powerful statements that highlighted the need for a rethink on current gun control laws and the sort of devastation that certain types of automatic weapons can inflict.

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Getty Images

There were also signs that carried humour and impact in equal measure.

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Getty Images

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