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CNN
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Verlyn Higbie traveled more than two hours from her home in Lincoln County, Nevada, to meet Donald Trump in person last month, but was stopped at the door when she arrived at the former president’s rally in Las Vegas.
Higbee, the county commission chairman, was accused by state party members of previously supporting one of the former president’s Republican primary rivals, even though he had a VIP invitation from the Trump campaign. was prohibited from entering.
“They said, ‘Did you support (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis?'” Higbee told CNN. “And I said, ‘I’m sure this shit just happened.'”
For longtime Nevada Republicans who have seen Mr. Higbee turned away or caught wind of it, the episode is emblematic of a state party that has crossed many lines in its loyalty to the former president. Met. They warn it could alienate the voters needed to win in this crucial general election battleground.
Trump narrowly lost Nevada by about the same margin (about 2.5 percentage points) in 2016 and 2020. It is likely to be a rematch between President Trump and President Joe Biden in the fall, and another heated battle is expected.
“Character has become more important than winning,” said TK Crabb, former political director and candidate strategist for the Clark County Republican Party. Mr. Crabb, a critic of the state party’s current leadership, was also initially barred from the Las Vegas rally, but was eventually allowed to attend with the help of a friend.
“These people don’t understand the strategy to win at General,” he said, adding that he had no intention of voting for Trump.
Trump’s advantage over the Nevada Republican Party was on full display this week. Trump won the state caucuses and all delegates with essentially no opposition on Thursday night. Her opponent in the remaining race, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, chose instead to participate in the state-sponsored Republican primary held two days earlier, a move that left Trump supporters in the state Republican Party. It was a confusing arrangement orchestrated by
Haley said Trump “rigged” the state’s nomination race after finishing a distant second in the primary “not as good as any of these candidates.” The move was pushed by Trump supporters, including the state’s Republican governor, Joe Lambardo, who endorsed the former president last month.
Asked about the results, Haley said, “We always knew Nevada was a fraud.” Her campaign emphasized that she has not spent any time or money campaigning in the state. Before withdrawing from the race, DeSantis and her allies similarly warned that the Nevada Republican Party had tipped the scales in Trump’s favor.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment. But McDonald’s has made no secret of his loyalty to Trump.
“I’m sending 100% of Nevada’s delegates to Donald J. Trump,” McDonald said at Trump’s rally in Las Vegas.
The format for awarding Nevada delegates is not the only controversy involving McDonald and other Nevada party officials. McDonald and Clark County Chairman Jesse Roe are among six so-called “fake electors” charged with involvement in Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The six pleaded not guilty to the felony charges filed by the Nevada Attorney General in December.
The refusal by these leading Republicans to accept the results of the 2020 election, and the expectation that their nominees will do the same, is already factored into several races across the state.
In one high-profile example, Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt echoed many of their debunked arguments about voter fraud in the final weeks before the 2022 midterm elections. was criticized over the airwaves.Laxalt lost by a narrow margin. Incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is widely seen as the most vulnerable Democrat heading into that year’s election. Her loss to him cost Republicans a critical seat in the party’s efforts to flip the Senate in its favor.
“It’s like they don’t want to win,” said Amy Tarkanian, a former Republican state party chair. “They would rather have a party full of purists.”
The concerns come as several indicators suggest that things are favorable for President Trump and the Republican Party this term. Jobs in Nevada’s tourism-dependent economy have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels like other regions. Nevada ended 2023 with the highest unemployment rate of 5.4% among the 50 states.
“Nevada’s economy has always lagged behind the rest of the country,” said Jeremy Hughes, a Republican strategist who has worked extensively in the Silver State. “Trump is the most popular in Nevada. The polls show that. I prefer him over Biden.”
Hughes argued that most voters aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in the state Republican Party, and that many state Republicans likely support MAGA reform. He said the Nevada Republican Party should also be encouraged by state Republicans closing the gap in registered voters. In 2020, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by about 4.7 percentage points, but in the latest count, that difference is less than 2 percentage points.
“This alone erases the margin of defeat for President Trump in 2020,” Hughes said.
But Tarkanian pointed out that the fastest-growing group of voters is not Democrats or Republicans, but “independent” registrants, which have ballooned in the years since the state introduced automatic voter registration. In 2020, one in four of his voters registered as an independent. Now it’s almost one in three people.
This year, Nevada voters will also consider a referendum on whether to strengthen abortion access in the state constitution. Abortion access has figured prominently in several recent state-wide contests, favoring Democrats.
Given these headwinds, Tarkanian said the state party can’t afford to alienate fellow Republicans.
“We need independents and soft Democrats to win, so why exclude Republicans from the event?” she said.
As for Higbee, he said he plans to vote for Trump, but believes the Nevada Republican Party hasn’t done enough about the former president.
“If you exclude 60% of Republican voters by calling them ‘RINOs’ or ‘never Trumpers,’ they won’t vote,” he said. “If anyone is to blame for that, it’s Mr. McDonald.”
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