Sharron Angle, the GOP’s disastrous 2010 nominee, is back for another Senate campaign in Nevada. Angle filed just before the deadline for the June 14 primary, where she’ll face establishment favorite Rep. Joe Heck in a seat that both parties are fighting hard to win.
Angle’s defeat came during a great year overall for her party. However, Angle botched her campaign against unpopular Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid by running a chaotic race. Among many other things, she managed to offend Latino voters numerous times. Most notably, Angle ran ads decrying undocumented immigration that featured generic pictures of Hispanics; she then told a class full of Latino students that they “look a little more Asian to me.” (Steve Benen compiled some of Angle’s other insane comments.)
Angle’s campaign certainly isn’t great news for Heck. At the very least, Angle will probably force him to expend some resources in the primary, and she may drag him to the right a bit. But Angle’s odds of actually emerging as the GOP nominee again are not good. Yes, Donald Trump’s decisive win in the Silver State’s presidential caucus demonstrates that Nevada Republicans can accept candidates like Angle. But unlike Angle, Trump didn’t lose a race he should have won to someone as hated as Reid. Indeed, a 2011 PPP poll found that Angle had a 31-52 favorable rating with Republicans. While numerous voters have undoubtedly forgotten about her since then (indeed, as a March Daily Beast story shows, Angle has largely faded into obscurity since her defeat), they’re probably not going to like her much once they’re reminded that she’s the woman who lost to Harry Reid.
Even if Republican voters are open to giving Angle a second chance, she’ll need a lot of resources if she’s going to run a credible campaign against Heck. Angle raised a ton of money during her race against Reid, but many (if not most) of those donors were more interested in ousting the Democratic leader than in sending Angle to Washington. Angle also relied on direct mail, which raises plenty of cash but costs a fortune to implement. Well-funded conservative groups also announced months ago that they had no interest in helping Angle throw away another race.
Still, presumptive Democratic nominee Catherine Cortez Masto, the former state attorney general, certainly isn’t going to complain if Angle makes some trouble for Heck for the next few months. Daily Kos Elections rates the general election as a Tossup.