With just a week remaining before Nevada’s Republican primary election, U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo are set to campaign around the Silver State in the company of conservative heavyweights.
Donald Trump Jr., former Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Richard Grenell, and several other conservative personalities will be together in Las Vegas on Friday for a meet and greet, lending their support to Trump-endorsed Laxalt and Lombardo, who are looking to unseat vulnerable Democrats in November.
Besides making an appearance at the event, former Nevada Attorney General Laxalt is launching his “America First Tour” across the state this week. Laxalt is hoping to snag a U.S. Senate seat from Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), who, between her under-the-radar style and President Joe Biden’s unpopularity, is on shaky ground for reelection. Clark County Sheriff Lombardo has also been on the road rallying support in the hopes of securing the GOP nomination and unseating Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) in November.
Both candidates have benefited from former President Donald Trump’s support, as well as several other high-profile endorsements, name recognition, and past success in other leadership positions. Surveys have shown Laxalt leading his top competitor, Sam Brown, by double digits, the most recent showing a 26-point lead. Lombardo has garnered the most support out all of the Republican gubernatorial candidates. A late May poll showed him with 35 percent support among likely GOP voters, compared to 15 percent for the next closest candidate, Joey Gilbert.
However, the extra drum-up of support from conservative allies could be beneficial to both Laxalt and Lombardo, as they face attacks from Democrats and dark money groups looking to weaken Republican gains in the state.
Attorneys for the Republican National Committee (RNC) on May 27 sent a cease and desist letter to a political action committee, accusing it of meddling in Nevada’s gubernatorial election.The RNC sent a letter to the Patriot Freedom Fund PAC, which had been mailing out political advertisements aimed of Lombardo.
The Nevada Independent reported:
RNC attorneys included a copy of a “misleading and fraudulent campaign mailer” titled “Republican Primary Ballot Guide” instructing the recipient to “take this sample ballot with you when you vote.” The other page mimics the design of a sample ballot, with filled-in boxes for secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant, attorney general candidate Sigal Chattah, and “Anyone but Joe Lombardo” for governor.
The RNC letter accuses the PAC of trademark infringement by including an image of the organization’s elephant logo, which it called “inaccurate, without permission or authorization from the RNC, and constitutes willful trademark infringement.”
Fox News Digital discovered around the same time that a dark money network in Washington, D.C., started by a foreign billionaire was gearing up to spend millions against Laxalt. According to the report:
The Somos PAC, a left-wing committee that targets Latino voters, is in the middle of a $4 million attack ad spending spree against Laxalt, the Republican front-runner to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto this November. The PAC began its seven-figure campaign, which it first revealed to Politico, in mid-May by pouring $1.25 million into media buys and website expenses, an independent expenditure report from the committee reviewed by Fox News shows.
Nevada Democrats are particularly vulnerable this election, with both Cortez Masto and Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) up for reelection. Democrats nationally have been trying to distance themselves from President Biden, as his tanking agenda makes him and those around him increasingly unpopular. Particularly within Nevada, Democrats’ prioritization of radical leftist policies is projected to be particularly unpopular with Hispanic voters, a demographic key to securing a victory in the state.
April analysis from Politico cited Ruy Teixeira, co-author of “The Emerging Democratic Majority” saying, “Nevada went from three-tenths of percentage more Democratic than the nation as a whole in 2016 to 2 points more Republican in 2020.” Nevada Democrats’ margin among Hispanics dropped by eight points between those two elections, and the decline “was driven almost entirely by working-class Hispanics.”
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