Failure to win confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before the November midterm elections will alienate and depress populist conservative voters and could permanently damage the Republican Party, according to political experts interviewed by LifeZette.

President Donald Trump was praised by conservatives when he announced the nomination on July 9 to succeed retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy and give the court its first clear conservative majority in generations.

Despite a tumultuous four days of hearings earlier this month before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Kavanaugh appeared to be moving steadily toward confirmation in time to join the high court by the start of its October term.

But then Democrats and left-wing political activists and lawyers sprang a series of unfounded 11th-hour claims by three women of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh that they say took place more than three decades ago.

Now, depending on the outcome of the committee’s scheduled hearing Thursday, Republican congressional and campaign leaders face an unnerving risk.

“There is a good chance that if Kavanaugh were to fail a committee vote and not be brought to the floor, fail a floor vote or withdraw, any of those three outcomes, it would be a gut punch to the conservative movement, and it would be a real setback to this White House,” Potomac Strategy Group President Matt Mackowiak told LifeZette.

The prospect is so serious that Mackowiak hastened to add he doubts it will happen. But he stressed that, regardless of the outcome, that notion will be front and center in the minds of voters with the midterm elections just around the corner.

Related: Media Overwhelmingly ‘Rigged’ Against Kavanaugh, MRC Study Says

Republican pollster John McLaughlin is also worried.

“That would suppress our vote if it’s our own Republicans who decided not to confirm him,” John McLaughlin told LifeZette. “It would be really disappointing to a lot of voters who really think that this is important. If they think he is a person of good character or they think this is a last-minute smear, it would be very disappointing to have the Senate back down.”

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“It would probably keep Trump voters at home,” McLaughlin said. “The Republican Congress has disappointed Trump voters on a number of issues, whether it’s immigration, whether it’s health care, [or] a host of other issues they haven’t even voted on.”

Even so, the Senate is less likely to change partisan hands than the House of Representatives, according to John Eastman, a professor at Chapman University Fowler Law School in Orange, California.

“The numbers are so bad for the Democrats in the Senate because we’re looking at a class of Democrats who were elected on the coattails of Barack Obama in 2012 in heavily Republican states,” Eastman said.

“So it would have to be a major swing to flip the Senate. I don’t see that happening. But it does put a number of close elections, seats in the House, up for grabs. That may well mean the difference of whether they hold onto the House,” he said.

David Barker, an American University professor, agreed that a failed confirmation would alienate the conservative base, but he believes it would be to a lesser degree than Mackowiak and Eastman believe. Barker is director at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.

Democrats will get the blame, Barker said, but it would also reflect a failure of the Trump administration in making judicial appointments.

“If they manage to get Kavanaugh confirmed, no one will remember or care about how it happened or the bumps in the road.”

“The fact that it is no sure thing that the GOP will hold onto the Senate means they could conceivably lose the opportunity to put a really conservative justice on the bench, because of sloppiness, bad choices on the part of the Trump administration,” Barker said.

“In the short term, it could motivate some sophisticated members of the conservative base in places like Tennessee, Texas, Missouri and Florida, to try to ensure that the GOP does in fact retain control of the Senate.”

But none of these concerns will remain if Kavanaugh is confirmed.

“If they manage to get Kavanaugh confirmed, no one will remember or care about how it happened or the bumps in the road,” Barker said. “And, if anything, the base may support Kavanaugh (and those who put him forward) more because of his #MeToo problem.”

“That was true of Thomas in 1991, and it was true of Clinton in 1998,” he added. “And even if they fail to get Kavanaugh but quickly move on to someone else who is just as conservative (or perhaps even more), the base will be happy.”

Mackowiak warned that the Democrats’ tactics will become the norm if they defeat Kavanaugh.

Significant damage has already been done: Democrats are not being held accountable for how they’ve approached the nomination process.

Related: Rule of Law ‘Unraveled’ if Dems Tank Kavanaugh, Florida AG Warns

“I think part of it, too, is [that] if there are no political costs to Democrats’ trying this strategy, then they are going to keep trying it in the future and applying it to each situation,” Mackowiak said. “But there is no question if they succeed, they’re going to look to use it again. There is an incentive structure there. So far, has any Democrat really paid a price for promoting these unproven allegations?”

Republican political consultant Noel Fritsch also warned that a Kavanaugh defeat will encourage more unfounded allegations, hearing disruptions, and wild allegations against GOP nominees at all levels of government.

“If Grassley or McConnell had shown any manhood last week, this whole Kavanaugh ordeal would’ve been over,” Fritsch told LifeZette. “Instead, all those Republican and independent voters who’ve been watching the Left’s implosion — the Antifas, the BLMs, the violence, and the shouting people out of restaurants — won’t ask whether these Republicans can stand up to all this barbarism. They’ll know Mitch and the Republicans won’t be able to stand up to the violent Left.”