By STEVE PEOPLES
AP National Politics Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A half-dozen mainstream Republican Senate candidates are drawing on the white “replacement” conspiracy theory to court voters this campaign season. Those Republicans promote the baseless notion there’s a plot to diminish the influence of white people in America. Such comments in recent weeks have gone largely ignored given the hard-line immigration rhetoric that’s become commonplace among conservatives during the Trump era. But a Buffalo, New York, shooting that may have been inspired by the racist theory is drawing new attention to the GOP’s growing embrace of white nationalist talking points. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has declined through a spokesperson to answer questions about replacement theory.
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