Friday, Sept. 17, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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For the principled Nevada Republicans trying to rescue their state party from extremism, the results of California’s recall vote this week should be a source of resolve to keep up the fight.
California voters, in overwhelmingly supporting the retention of Gov. Gavin Newsom and thoroughly defeating Trumpist GOP candidate Larry Elder, sent a strong message to the nation that the Golden State rejects the national Republican Party’s march toward authoritarianism and the politics of repression.
In Nevada, any smart and responsible Republican would look at the recall vote next door and see writing on the wall for extremist GOP candidates in our state.
Nevada isn’t a California clone politically — we don’t lean quite as Democratic — but in recent years we’ve come to resemble our neighbors more and more. Voter registration numbers in Nevada have Democrats outnumbering Republicans by about 80,000 voters statewide, with Democrats making up 35.3% of the electorate and Republicans just over 30%. Independents make up 25.7% of voters.
But those numbers tell only part of the story. Nevadans have voted solidly against GOP extremism in recent years, supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 while also approving a heavy slate of moderate candidates at the congressional and state levels. Look at the tale of the tape: Democrats hold five of our six U.S. Senate and House seats, all but one of the statewide elected positions in state government, and majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature. In addition, voters have approved numerous ballot questions that were opposed by far-right Republicans, on subjects such as guns and clean energy.
Yet the Nevada state GOP’s leadership keeps digging deeper on extremism, embracing the Big Lie after Trump’s loss to Biden and refusing to denounce threats and intimidation that sprung up from right-wing hate groups such as the Proud Boys. More unsettling yet, moderate Nevada Republicans accused the state party of recruiting the Proud Boys into the party and allowing them to establish a growing presence in the organization.
Party leadership denied this, but it’s an uncontroverted fact that individuals associated with the Proud Boys have begun operating within party circles. Most notably, the group helped foment the disruption of a Clark County Republican Party meeting this summer in which moderate leaders were attempting to hold a vote to select new officers.
Now the party looks to line up for the 2022 election with an extremist, Adam Laxalt, at the top of its ticket. Laxalt, the former Nevada attorney general who is seeking to unseat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, is a picture of all that is wrong with today’s GOP. He was out of step with Nevadans on numerous issues as A.G. — immigration, abortion, guns and more — and he went from bad to worse by filing a string of junk lawsuits challenging the results of Nevada’s 2020 presidential election. This is a man who once swore to uphold the constitutions of Nevada and the U.S. — now he makes bogus claims of widespread voter fraud in an effort to overturn legitimate election results and disempower Nevadans. And in doing so, he puts the many Nevadans who operate our election systems at risk of violence and threats from the rabid right.
Not all Nevada Republicans are comfortable with Laxalt’s toxic presence in party leadership, or the party’s general shift toward becoming an anti-democratic institution that restricts voter access, engages in outrageous gerrymandering and subverts election laws in an attempt to establish minority rule.
Nevada needs those responsible Republicans to keep up their efforts to save the party and re-establish it as a force for constructive leadership in our state.
The state needs a Republican Party that stands for responsible government, upholds American values and is committed to building a better tomorrow for all Nevadans.
Democracies function best when individuals with different points of view and different solutions to problems come together and hammer out policies. Unfortunately, though, today’s GOP is bent on tearing down the pillars of our democracy and pitting Nevadans against each other. There’s nothing constructive about this organization under its present leadership.
In California, Republicans just learned the hard way that voters wanted nothing more to do with the party’s extremism today than they did when they elected Biden by a whopping 29% margin over Trump in 2020.
In Nevada, we hope that moderate Republicans are paying rapt attention to what happened next door, and are feeling emboldened in their attempt to restore sensibility and responsibility in their party.
