Assembly Deputy Minority Whip Gallant: “That MAGA MAGA Republican, we all love. But some of our districts are a little squishy, and we can’t run those kinds of candidates in those particular districts.”
Newly unearthed audio captures Assembly Deputy Minority Whip Danielle Gallant blatantly admitting that Joe Lombardo is relying on a slate of legislature candidates who are MAGA extremists posing as moderates to get elected. Gallant exposed that while she and Lombardo love “[those] MAGA-MAGA Republican(s)” they “need candidates that present moderate, even though they are very conservative” to win “squishy districts.”
Lombardo’s fealty to Trump is clear. After he said he “couldn’t turn a blind eye” to Trump’s criminal indictments last year, he then endorsed Trump and undermined our system of justice by cravenly calling an independent jury decision that found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges a “witch hunt.” It makes sense that Lombardo’s slate of endorsed state legislative candidates are bending the knee to Trump, even if some are trying to hide it ahead of November. After refusing to endorse Trump for the Republican nomination, Lombardo himself turned around and participated in the rigged-for-Trump caucus days after his largest donor started giving to Trump.
“Joe Lombardo is trying to stack the state legislature with MAGA extremist weirdos who want to implement their out-of-touch agenda by deceiving Nevada voters,” said Nevada State Democratic Party Spokesperson Claudia Alvarado. “This raises serious red flags about Lombardo’s entire slate of endorsed candidates, and in the era of election denial and attempts to steal fair and free elections, voters should know the truth about candidates’ ideologies. This leaked audio is further proof Nevada voters can’t trust the GOP slate of candidates.”
Read more below:
Nevada Current: Republican Lawmaker: ‘Very conservative’ candidates need to ‘present moderate’
Dana Gentry
Key Points:
- Assemblywoman Danielle Gallant says if Republicans want to preserve Gov. Joe Lombardo’s veto power, they can’t run “MAGA MAGA” candidates in certain districts, and candidates who are “very conservative” should portray themselves as more moderate in order to win.
- “I am not making an argument for ranked choice voting but, that MAGA MAGA Republican, we all love. But some of our districts are a little squishy, and we can’t run those kinds of candidates in those particular districts,” Gallant told attendees. “So if we wanna gain some, the majority, slowly, we are gonna have to in the Legislature, support our governor and protect our veto power, we need candidates that present moderate, even though they are very conservative.
- Lombardo, who vetoed a record 75 bills in 2023, his first legislative session, is seeking to hold off a potential Democratic veto-proof supermajority.
- Lombardo, who endorsed Donald Trump for president, did not respond to questions about whether he thinks it’s appropriate for candidates to mask their ideology while presenting themselves to the public.
- “I don’t know how to answer that,” Gallant said when asked the same question during a phone interview. She subsequently asked the Current to submit questions and then refused to answer. She also declined to specify who she was referring to as a “MAGA MAGA Republican.”
- “I do not support deceiving voters,” Michael McDonald, the Nevada GOP chair and senior advisor to Trump’s Nevada campaign, said in a text. He did not respond to questions about Gallant disparaging the viability of MAGA candidates.
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