Former Nevada GOP state party chair: Republican party “isn’t prepared” to fulfill its responsibilities
Leading up to the general election, Nevada Republicans know they have an infrastructure problem. Earlier this year, they scrapped all plans for minority outreach and closed offices across Nevada. Conservative radio host, Greg Neft warned Republicans that the NV Dems have an “excellent messaging machine” and urged the NVGOP to “[catch] up.” Former Nevada GOP state party chair Amy Tarkanian told the Boston Globe that she believed her state’s Republican party “isn’t prepared to fulfill its responsibilities of getting the vote out and assisting candidates,” citing the charges against Nevada’s state party chair and other party leaders.
Nevada Republicans vying for seats in Congress had a tough night Tuesday. In CD-1 they nominated a guy who Congresswoman Titus beat by nearly 10,000 votes last cycle, CD-4 Republicans could barely get Trump and Lombardo-backed former North Las Vegas Mayor across the finish line, and the Lombardo-backed Halo composer spent over half a million dollars to wind up in 4th place. In February, the Nevada GOP held a rigged-for-Trump caucus where the state party’s fears of low voter turnout came to fruition with Donald Trump receiving less than half of the votes received by President Biden on his respective ballot.
Read more about Republicans’ lack of infrastructure below:
Nevada Independent: GOP minority outreach centers in Nevada quietly shuttered after 2022 election cycle
Key points:
- […] A Nevada Independent analysis found that those four locations are closed and now host other businesses. The Nevada GOP did not respond to multiple requests for comment about why the centers were closed or if they plan to re-open them.
- The AAPI outreach center in Spring Valley is now a vape shop called “Vape Ape,” which an employee told an Indy reporter had opened in the past year. The former Hispanic Voices for Trump location in East Las Vegas is now a Spanish-speaking church, and a Black Voices for Trump outpost has been replaced by a chiropractic practice and a small business selling refrigerated trailers and boxes.
- With the exception of a North Las Vegas RNC center-turned-boba shop, community center locations remain listed on an active page on the Nevada GOP’s website, although the page is not accessible via the site’s homepage and it does not note the closure of the centers.
- The situation presents a dramatic split-screen from the Biden campaign, which, in recent weeks, has opened offices across the Las Vegas Valley as part of its effort to court minority voters in the Silver State.
- In March, the campaign opened offices in North Las Vegas and southeast Las Vegas, parts of the city with high Black and Asian American populations, respectively. And last week, the campaign opened an office in East Las Vegas, a heavily Latino community.
- The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has yet to announce any campaign office openings in Nevada. While they coordinate their campaign with the Nevada GOP, by this point in 2020, Trump campaign officials had opened an office in Las Vegas.
Boston Globe: State parties play a critical role in elections— are Democrats or Republicans best positioned in 2024?
Key points:
- As GOP state parties are making headlines for struggling to keep office locations, having small account balances, and facing calls to rethink their fund-raising strategies, some Republicans are concerned that donors have been turned off, handicapping their fund-raising efforts.
- Former Nevada GOP state party chair Amy Tarkanian said she believed her state’s Republican party isn’t prepared to fulfill its responsibilities of getting the vote out and assisting candidates, citing the charges against Nevada’s state party chair and other party leaders. “It hurts their capabilities of fund-raising. … The trust is lacking,” Tarkanian said. The Nevada Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.
GREG NEFT: The Democratic Party in Nevada has an excellent messaging machine. They have excellent distribution channels. They know how to get the word out there. And again, I say this not because I’m glad about it. Don’t think that I say this because it’s time Republicans caught up and fast.
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