Moderate Connecticut Republicans have been hiding from Donald Trump for years, afraid the lying, egomaniacal former President would scare away the reasonable, middle-of-the-road voters they need to get elected in this blue state.

After all, Republican state Sen. Heather Somers of Groton refused to participate in a debate in last year’s election, saying she didn’t want to discuss “national” issues. Think Trump.

But as the Republican crazies _ including election deniers and insurrectionist apologists _ flex their newly-leveraged political muscle in the House majority in Washington, I don’t think Connecticut Republicans like Somers are going to be able to run fast enough from the national chaos caused by their party.

It is almost certainly going to make it much harder to successfully run in Connecticut as a Republican.

Already, the House has put forward a bill meant to gut the new enforcement money allocated to the Internal Revenue Service, a measure that would make rich tax dodgers happy and add uncollected tax revenue to the budget deficit.

More alarming is the new GOP-created committee meant to attack agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, the folks who keep us safe.

I remember when Republicans were the ones who wanted to safeguard law enforcement and national intelligence, not put those defenders of our freedom on trial.

It’s certainly not going to play well in Connecticut, except in the darkest, Trumpiest reaches of the state.

Then the empowered Republicans in Washington want to cut Social Security and Medicare. I’m not sure that will very popular in mainstream Connecticut, where people who collect Social Security and Medicare are reliable voters.

And don’t forget Republican plans to attack the defense budget. That won’t be very popular in Connecticut, either, where submarines and jet engines are mainstays of the manufacturing economy.

Pretty soon Sen. Somers won’t be the only Connecticut Republican trying to run fast from the “national” issues raised by their party, the same folks who brought you the end of abortion protections in Roe vs. Wade.

Let’s not forget that the House Republicans are promising showdowns over raising the national debt ceiling, refusing to honor the nation’s commitments and plunging us all into economic freefall.

That kind of chaos, which is what the extreme wing of the party seems to crave, will make the next two years a brutal time to identify as a Republican in Connecticut. The Trump era will seem quaint.

Even the endless Hunter Biden investigations are going to be tiresome and reflect badly on Republicans here.

We all know that Hunter Biden was a drug addict who tried his best, through the fog of intoxication, to profit from his father’s political station. Instead of getting rich, like the Trump children did from their father’s connections, Hunter Biden ended up owing almost $1 million to the IRS, which he was unable to pay.

Most of us here in Connecticut know that. We don’t need the people sent to Washington to dwell endlessly on it. A Trump-appointed prosecutor is already working on transgressions by the president’s son.

Rather we want lawmakers to work on the nation’s pressing problems and business, the risk of terrorism, a terrible war in Europe.

I don’t take any solace in the Washington chaos that Republicans are about to birth. And I don’t relish the crushing blow it will deliver to Connecticut Republicans, a second party the state desperately needs to remain viable.

I’d like to fast forward through the next two years.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com