Nevada delegation to Republican National Convention suggests party divide on Trump

By Megan Messerly

Sunday, July 17, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Several dozen Nevadans are en route to or have arrived in Cleveland for the Republican Party’s national convention this week, where the party will officially nominate Donald Trump as its presidential nominee.

That group includes four elected officials — Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Treasurer Dan Schwartz, Controller Ron Knecht, and state Sen. Don Gustavson — who will serve as either delegates or alternates to the convention. Two more notable Nevadans, Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin and UFC President Dana White, are slated to speak at the event.

But some names are notably absent: Gov. Brian Sandoval, Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison and the four Republican members of Nevada’s congressional delegation — Reps. Joe Heck, Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei and Sen. Dean Heller.

Sandoval made the decision not to attend the convention months ago and will be in Nevada preparing for an upcoming trade mission to Australia, according to his spokeswoman. Hutchison will be traveling with his son to Utah to prepare for his son’s two-year mission. Heck will be at home in Nevada campaigning before leaving for two weeks of military duty.

Hardy has a “very busy schedule” in Nevada, according to his campaign manager. Heller hasn’t been to a national convention since entering Congress, his spokesman noted. Amodei will be meeting with voters across his district and never had plans to attend the convention, according to his spokesman.

None of their official reasons for not going has anything to do with Trump, but all of them have been relatively tepid in their remarks on the party’s presumptive nominee or tried to avoid the topic of Trump altogether.

Heller said in May that he wouldn’t commit to voting for Trump and noted that Nevada has a “none of these candidates” option on the ballot. Sandoval has wobbled: In May, he said he’d support the party’s nominee, and in June he said that support for Trump wasn’t “absolute.”

Individually, it’s not unusual for a politician to skip the convention. But for essentially all of Nevada’s top Republican politicians to skip?

“It’s very unusual,” said UNLV history professor Michael Green.

Green said that though the conventions in recent years have been more like a rubber stamp on the nominating process, they can still be valuable as an opportunity to mingle and make connections with other politicians in the party.

“It smacks of saying, ‘Donald Trump is unacceptable, so we’re not going,’” Green said.

The fact that Sandoval, Hutchison and all of the Republicans in Nevada’s congressional delegation aren’t going is indicative of the “wide and deep support” Trump is missing from party leaders here in Nevada and nationally, said Republican political consultant Greg Ferraro.

But he added that the convention could be an opportunity for Trump to answer two central questions: Can he unite a deeply divided party, and can he start to build alliances within the party to win in November?

“If he emerges from Cleveland addressing those two central questions, it could move some of those people to be more involved over the course of the campaign,” Ferraro said. “The opposite is true as well.”

He added that choosing Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate “certainly helps” Trump’s standing with conservatives. (Heller, for instance, tweeted Friday that Pence was a “solid” choice and a “strong and principled conservative.")

Closer to home, the list of Republicans attending the convention offers a glimpse into the rift in the Republican Party in Nevada between the more moderate and conservative factions.

“It’s a sign of the division within the party itself,” Green said. “Frankly, it’s hard to know exactly what Trump represents … but if you have, say, Knecht and Schwartz and other very conservative Republicans going, then they’re sending a signal.”

Schwartz said he wouldn’t mention any names but that he wasn’t surprised to see who was and wasn’t planning on attending the convention.

“I think the Republican Party is at one of its many crossroads, and the fact that some are going and others are not going is reflective of that,” said Schwartz, who is an alternate delegate to the convention.

Knecht characterized those who would be attending the convention as representative of the “real Republican, limited government, conservative base.”

“What you’re seeing is Nevada finally showing that side to the world,” said Knecht, a delegate to the convention.

But both Schwartz and Knecht indicated that they’re looking for Trump to make his case. Both initially supported Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker before he dropped out of the race early on.

“Some of the unfortunate remarks, well, they’re obviously unfortunate. We wish that hadn’t happened,” Knecht said. “But I do sense a maturity in their campaign.”

Schwartz expressed similar sentiments.

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, he goes off on another rumble,” Schwartz said. “Now he’s at it with one of the justices on the Supreme Court.”

He added that Trump “clearly represents that animus in the electorate,” appealing to dissatisfied voters in Nevada and across the country.

Laxalt, asked about Trump’s remarks on the Hispanic and Muslim communities, said that he hopes that Trump reaches out to all communities and that, from what he has heard from the Trump campaign, they claim to do that.

“The Democrats are very good at trying to demonize Republicans to get some of these groups to reflexively support them,” Laxalt said. “... We need to do a better job of making it clear to all the groups that Democrats divide the populace into, that our policies, we believe, are better for everyone.”

Laxalt served as Nevada state chair for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, but said he would support Trump as the nominee after Cruz dropped out.

For his part, Laxalt said that he thought it was important to attend the convention as a young Republican — especially having never attended a national convention before — to support Republicans up and down the ballot.

“Trump is incredibly unorthodox, but I think people are still excited for some change,” Laxalt said. "We’ll see what that looks like.”