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Article snippet: The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) on Tuesday announced its first major ad buy of the 2018 cycle — a $6.4 million blitz backing Republican candidates, signaling growing GOP concerns about protecting their Senate majority in November. Senate Majority Leader MORE (R) could lose in Texas, a GOP stronghold for decades. New polls show Sen. MORE (D-Ind.) and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) leading their GOP opponents in Indiana and Tennessee, two strongly pro-Trump states, and Cruz in a dead heat with Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke. The recent surveys are disappointing to Republicans who had hoped that Tennessee would be an easy victory. Shortly before Labor Day, a senior Senate Republican aide dismissed Bredesen’s prospects as “hype” and predicted the party could pick up as many as four Senate seats in the midterm elections. Republican strategists have also counted Donnelly’s seat in Indiana as a likely pickup and were surprised by an NBC/Marist poll released last week that showed him up 6 points against Republican businessman Mike Braun. “Everybody feels like we’re going to win that, but I thought it would be a better number,” said Chip Saltsman, a GOP strategist. “That’s one I would put on there that surprised me a little bit.” A second Republican strategist said, “Braun does seem to have let his foot off the gas a little after the primary.” The strategists attribute Donnelly’s lead to Braun’s lack of name recognition, while pointing out that former ... Link to the full article to read more