WASHINGTON — If 2016 has been the Year of Trump in politics, it may also end up being a new Year of the Woman, if Democrats get their way. And that won’t be a coincidence.

Democrats aim to have female Senate candidates on the ballot in nine states in November, a near-record, and the contenders are likely to share the ticket with the first major-party female presidential nominee in history, Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump, whose commanding win in Indiana cemented his status as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, is viewed unfavorably by 70 percent of women, according to Gallup. So as discomfited Republican Senate candidates released statements trying to change the topic or have it both ways Wednesday, Democrats made plans to link their largely male opponents to Trump, seeking to win back control of the Senate by electing Democratic women coast to coast.

‘‘I’ll tell you as a professional woman, too many women have had to fight Donald Trump’s type of sexism and offensive rhetoric their entire lives,’’ said Democratic Representative Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona, who is challenging Republican Senator John McCain. She released an ad in February tying the incumbent to Trump.

‘‘After 33 years in Washington, John McCain has changed, and Donald Trump proves that he has changed,’’ Kirkpatrick said, reflecting the Democratic approach in key races. ‘‘Because even after Trump’s sexist and offensive rhetoric, McCain has been really clear that he would still support Trump.’’

Republicans have grappled for months with the impact Trump would have on efforts to protect their slim 54-46 Senate majority. Last fall, the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Ward Baker, wrote a memo later leaked to The Washington Post that warned candidates to take lessons from Trump’s rise but steer clear of his incendiary stances.

‘‘Houston, we have a problem,’’ Baker wrote. ‘‘Donald Trump has said some wacky things about women. . . . We do not want to re-engage the ‘war on women’ fight, so isolate Trump on this issue by offering a quick condemnation of it.’’

Indeed, for all of the controversies he’s stoked and every voter group he’s offended while appealing to enough white Republican men to emerge as the GOP nominee, women could be Trump’s biggest problem this fall, and the biggest problem for Senate Republicans.

Women vote in higher numbers than men — in 2012, about 10 million more women cast ballots than men — and vote more heavily Democratic. This year, strategists in both parties expect those trends to be magnified, given Trump’s unpopularity with women, Clinton’s historic candidacy (though she herself faces high negative ratings), and the large number of women running for Senate.

On Wednesday, Emily’s List, an influential political committee dedicated to electing women, targeted five GOP Senate candidates who face female opponents in November, demanding to know if they would play the ‘‘woman’s card.’’

‘‘Are we about to see him devalue his female opponent and launch character attacks on her in the same vein as Donald Trump?’’ asked releases aimed at McCain, Representative Joe Heck of Nevada, and senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mark Kirk of Illinois, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock said this election presents a chance to send a historic number of women to the Senate, more than in 1992’s ‘‘Year of the Woman,’’ when female voters outraged over the all-male Judiciary Committee’s treatment of Anita Hill at hearings on Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court nomination swept women into office around the country.

‘‘Donald Trump is going to have to really expand the electorate to overcome how badly he is seen by women,’’ Schriock said. ‘‘If you’re starting your presidential campaign with 70 percent basically women who don’t like you, you’re going to have to find a lot of brand-new voters, a lot. And the truth is there’s not enough.’’

Already, a GOP-run anti-Trump political action committee has aired an ad featuring women reading Trump’s negative comments about women, including ‘‘bimbo,’’ ‘’dog,’’ and ‘‘fat pig.’’ In Arkansas, Democratic longshot Connor Eldridge released a digital ad showing Trump saying some of those things and worse, and Republican Senator John Boozman pledging to support the GOP nominee.

Democrats say much more of the same is yet to come.

‘‘We have repeatedly called on Pat Toomey to distance himself from those and other comments of Donald Trump’s and he’s refused,’’ said Katie McGinty, the Democrats’ Senate nominee in Pennsylvania. ‘‘What we have is a Trump-Toomey ticket.’’

Toomey’s spokesman, Ted Kwong, said Toomey has made clear he disagrees with Trump in several areas, and he accused McGinty of being ‘‘a total rubber stamp for Hillary Clinton and the Washington party bosses.’’ McCain spokeswoman Lorna Romero offered a similar retort to Kirkpatrick, saying her ‘‘only accomplishment in office is being a rubber stamp for this president.’’

Yet Toomey, McCain, and other Republicans find themselves in a no-win situation. All have pledged to support the eventual nominee — to do otherwise would risk alienating Trump’s many enthusiastic supporters. But most want to create some distance from Trump if they can, a delicate dance that might get trickier.

Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a vulnerable incumbent, summed up the dilemma by declaring through a spokeswoman Wednesday that she would support Trump for president — but just not endorse him.