How Donald Trump is already impacting Republican candidates, in one ad

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It's fair to say the above video is an ad that Democrats have dreamed of producing. But until recently, they probably didn't think they would get to.

In it, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) repeatedly ties Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Republicans' 2008 presidential nominee, to a leading Republican who has praised water-boarding, suggested banning Muslim immigrants and questioned McCain's own war hero background. McCain, as the ad points out, has repeatedly said he'll accept Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.

As recently as a year ago, a political attack ad like this would have been nearly unthinkable. But the political reality today is that Republicans' front-runner has said all those things and looks poised to capture the 2016 Republican nomination. If you're McCain and the eight or so Senate Republicans up for re-election in swingy or even blue-leaning states, this is more like a real-life nightmare.

Democrats challenging vulnerable Senate Republicans for their seats and, ultimately, for control of the Senate in November have plenty to work with when it comes to Trump's controversial, inflammatory, eyebrow-raising comments that often isolate whole sectors of general election populations in one fell swoop. Even Republicans have occasionally denounced the man who could soon lead their party when he's gone too far. And there's a reason for that: They were concerned his views would be cast as theirs. Well, now they have.

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