The Local GOP

Nevada's Leadership Stinks

I left Illinois. One reason I left was the state GOP was run by people who didn’t actually believe in the GOP. They were there for themselves, not principles. If they were true conservatives, there would be a pulse for the Illinois party. My hometown county, DuPage, used to be the most Republican county in the US. Now, it’s a Democratic county and as evidence, the national rep won by 9%.

I settled in Nevada for a large variety of reasons. One thing I have said is if this state goes blue I am out. Since moving here, the governor switched parties. Joe Lombardo is a very good governor and has done a very good job. The Lt Gov is Republican Stavros Anthony and he works his tail off. The state voted for Biden in 2020 but Trump this cycle.

Where it gets ugly is down-ballot. The NVGOP leadership runs the party for themselves, not for constituents. I have watched down-ballot races for three cycles now. Sure, Nevada is gerrymandered to the hilt by the Democrats to favor Democrats. That’s a strike against them. But, the people at the top don’t do the work.

There is no financial support for down-ballot candidates. There is no support or good recruiting efforts to find good candidates. The leadership of the party refuses to have a competitive election while talking about competitive elections for everyone else. The leadership loves to wax about term limits, while not imposing them on themselves.

This cycle was a red wave cycle. It was also an anti-incumbent cycle according to left-of-center pundit Megyn McArdle. Not one national office seat in Nevada switched hands. The Republicans lost winnable local races as well.

There were some bright spots. A Republican was elected to the Clark County board for the first time in a generation. The Clark County school board will have to reckon with two conservative school board members. But, they didn’t get money or support from the party. They were on their own.

Sure, the Nevada Supreme Court didn’t do anyone any favors by allowing ballots to be dumped up to three days after the election day. That in itself invites conspiracy theories about fraud even if there isn’t any fraud. Count them all on the day and release the results.

The next cycle is a governor’s race along with state office races. NVGOP better recruit candidates now to run that can win. The Secretary of State here is against clean voter rolls and the AG isn’t about law enforcement. The AG is more worried about the color of your skin than anything else. No one plays the race card more on Twitter.

We had a voter ID ballot initiative that passed overwhelmingly. But, it wasn’t the NVGOP that led the charge to get it on the ballot. There is a Pigpen Project that is fighting to clean up the voter rolls. It’s running into resistance from both the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. It gets very little support from the NVGOP.

So, while it was nice to bring an unneeded 6 electoral votes for Trump. It would have been a success if the Republicans won some down-ballot races. Especially that Senate seat due to the fact there are so many RINOs in the Senate. There were probably two winnable House races but no support from both the candidates and the local party caused them to lose it.

They like to take the photos and accept the accolades. They take the bows and love to be applauded. But, they don’t do the retail work that it takes to build a coalition that can last for generations.