STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- With President Barack Obama's approval rating hovering in the low to mid-40s -- it was 45% in CNN/ORC International's recent poll --Democrats in tough contests are largely keeping their distance from the president's tarnished reputation.
And as Election Day has drawn closer, those differences have become more pronounced. Republican opponents are trying harder than ever to link their rivals to the president, forcing Democrats to visibly distinguish themselves from the White House.
Here are seven Democratic candidates who've kept Obama on the sidelines:
1. Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky. As the Democrat challenging the Senate's top Republican in a state that voted for Mitt Romney two years ago, Grimes has been perhaps the most high-profile candidate to keep her distance from Obama.
Most notably, she refuses to say whether she voted for the president, citing a matter of principle of privacy at the ballot box as her reason for not answering the question.
She's been pressed about her support for the president because she's made a blatant attempt to paint herself as the Democratic antithesis to the commander in chief.
"I'm not Barack Obama," she said in a campaign ad. "I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA."
2. Sen. Mark Begich, Alaska. Only 41% of Alaska voters sided with Obama in 2012, so Begich knows all too well that it's not a smart strategy to be a champion for the president. In fact, he likes to think of himself more as a "thorn."
"I'll be a thorn in his [posterior]," Begich told the Washington Post. "There's times when I'm a total thorn, you know, and he doesn't appreciate it."
Originally posted here:
7 times Democrats wished Barack Obama would go away