WASHINGTON – Now that Donald Trump is GOP’s presumed nominee for president, Republicans senators in tough reelection races are in the spot of having to voice support for the party’s polarizing standard bearer.

It’s putting senators like Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, Missouri’s Roy Blunt and New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte in the crosshairs of Democrats who hope to tie them to Trump and his controversial positions as part of their bid to win back the Senate.

The Republican senators were already vulnerable before they made public, pro-Trump statements, said Lauren Passalacqua, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

They are more at risk now because they’re linked to a candidate whose stances alienate women and other groups, Passalacqua said during an interview Thursday.

The Democratic campaign committee this week tried to link Senate incumbents to both Trump and Republicans’ refusal to act on President Barack Obama’s nomination of Federal Appeals Court Justice Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

“Blunt would let the man who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country, called Mexican immigrants ‘rapists,’ and said women should be punished for having an abortion, nominate someone to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court,” the committee said in a press release.

It put out identical statements about Ayotte, Toomey and other Republican incumbents.

Republicans fired back that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has her own problems, such as supporting the Affordable Care Act and remarks about killing coal jobs.

Many Republicans in reelection contests have kept their distance from Trump, saying they would support whomever the party chose as its nominee.

Now that he appears to be the candidate, they are tiptoeing around him.

A Toomey campaign spokesman wouldn’t say whether the senator supports Trump and referred to an interview with a Philadelphia talk radio station.

Speaking to WPHT on Wednesday,Toomey didn’t say explicitly that he supported Trump, but said he’s better than Clinton.

“Donald Trump was not my first choice. He wasn’t my second choice or third or fourth choice. I have lots have differences with Donald Trump and lots of problems with him,” he said.

“But I am absolutely in the ‘never Hillary Clinton’ camp. We cannot allow Hillary Clinton to become president of the United States,” he said.

Ayotte’s campaign didn’t say whether the senator supports now supports Trump, but it told the Manchester Union Leader, “As she’s said from the beginning, Kelly plans to support the nominee. As a candidate herself, she hasn’t and isn’t planning to endorse anyone this cycle.”

Both Toomey and Ayotte have been critical of Trump’s remarks, including those about barring Muslims from entering the country.

Ayotte campaign spokeswoman Liz Johnson did respond to the Democrats’ attacks on her position on Garland’s nomination. “Kelly will continue to stand up for the people of New Hampshire to have a voice in the Supreme Court nomination,” she said.

The Democratic candidate in the race, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, “is doing the bidding of Harry Reid and Washington Democrats who are flooding the airwaves with millions of dollars worth of attack ads on her behalf,” she added.

Like Ayotte, Blunt and other Republicans – including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Todd Young, R-Indiana, who is running for the seat left by retiring Sen. Dan Coats – have given stock answers about supporting the GOP nominee.

Now, while indicating support for Trump, they’re also pivoting to tie their Democratic rivals to Clinton.

In a statement, the Blunt campaign linked his opponent, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, to the Democratic front-runner.

Campaign spokesman Tate O’Connor said Kander “supports Obamacare, cap-and-trade, a porous border and gun control, so Missourians will reject him along with the Obama-Clinton-Kander agenda.”

Kander spokesman Chris Hayden responded: “Sen. Blunt has chosen to support an extreme and divisive candidate in Donald Trump out of blind allegiance to his party and to the detriment of Missouri families.”

Asked about his support for Trump, Grassley said in a statement, “I look forward to working to help the Republican candidate for president carry Iowa, as well as running my own campaign, and talking about the direction of the country for the future.” 

Young’s campaign manager, Trevor Foughty, said the congressman “has consistently said he intends to support the Republican nominee for president because we cannot have a third term of Barack Obama, with Hillary Clinton as our next president.”

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also didn’t endorse a candidate after suspending his own presidential campaign in February but said he’ll support Trump.

Other Republicans appear less sure. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has said he’ll support whomever the party nominates, told CNN on Thursday that he’s not ready to endorse Trump – a stance that elicited a quick response from Trump: “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan’s agenda.”

Passalacqua downplayed the suggestion that Clinton will drag down Democratic candidates.

She cited a poll this week by CNN and ORC International that shows the Democrat leading Trump by 13 percent.

She also dismissed the idea that voters will distinguish between Trump and Republicans running for Senate.

“The same people who allowed Trump to take over their party are going to be the voice of reason now?” she said.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.