I can’t say that I’m surprised:
Sen. Dean Heller has revealed that he wound up voting for Donald Trump for president last November.
"Yes, I voted for Donald Trump," he said in a statement texted to a reporter, according to The Nevada Independent newspaper.
The Nevada Republican told reporters in the month before the election that he was 99 percent sure he would oppose Mr. Trump for president, the report notes.
Heller, 57, has served in the Senate since 2011 and previously served in the House and as secretary of state of Nevada. He's considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans up for re-election in the 2018 midterm elections. He was highly critical of the Senate Republican leadership's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in June, arguing that it would have taken health care coverage away from millions of Americans and tens of thousands of his constituents.
Last week, Danny Tarkanian, the son of former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, announced that he's launching a campaign to challenge Heller in the party's primary next year.
So why did he wait nine months to finally admit this? Because he was pressured into doing it:
The acknowledgement follows nearly a year and a half of criticism and cautious public statements made by Heller about Trump throughout the 2016 election. Most notably, he told reporters in October 2016 that he was 99 percent certain he would oppose the Republican nominee for president.
Heller also donated campaign donations from Trump to charity in 2015, and said during the campaign he was “vehemently opposed” to Trump, whom he described as a man that “denigrates human beings.”
But unlike several of his Senate colleagues, Heller never fully closed the door on supporting Trump, and had kept his presidential vote a secret until now. He told a Reno Gazette-Journal reporter in December that “I don’t think anybody cares” how he voted.
Heller has generally been supportive of Trump’s agenda since the president took office, voting about 90 percent of the time in favor of policies or appointments that line up with Trump’s position. He has described the president’s proposed budget as “anti-Nevada,” and has staunchly opposed the administration’s moves toward establishing a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
“When President Trump or my party is right for Nevada, I’ll support them,” he said during an April speech to the Nevada Legislature. “But when they’re wrong for Nevada, I’ll try to change their minds. I’ve always put Nevada first.”
The revelation comes on the same day that Tarkanian’s campaign unveiled an attack website highlighting many of Heller’s cautious statements toward Trump, and asking readers to vote in a poll as to whether Heller is “100% Never Trumper,” “99% Never Trumper,” or “Almost Positive Never Trump.”
Tarkanian’s wife, Amy Tarkanian, is a former Nevada Republican Party chairwoman and this is how she responded:
Heller doesn’t want to suffer the same fate as Rep. Joe Heck (R. NV) did in last year’s election. He knows he’s the most vulnerable Republican Senator and he not only has to win his primary, he also has a tough opponent in Rep. Jacky Rosen (D. NV). That’s why campaign season has already officially kicked off in Nevada:
Both the Democratic National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are up with billboards this week attacking Republican Sen. Dean Heller and his Democratic opponent Jacky Rosen, respectively. Democrats are targeting Heller over Senate Republicans’ recent efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans will paint Rosen as “loyal” to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The ads, which launch today, criticize Rosen for voting “against Nevada veterans” and standing “with Nancy Pelosi,” saying that “our veterans deserve better.” The NRSC says that Rosen has voted with Pelosi 91 percent of the time, and points to two bills Rosen voted against, one to allow the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire, demote or suspend VA employees and another to approve $2 billion in additional funding for the Veterans Choice Program, which allows veterans to see a private doctor at the government’s expense.
The ads will run along Keystone Avenue and W. Moana Lane near two Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Reno. Rosen will need to spend a significant portion of her campaign meeting with voters in Reno to increase her name recognition in the northern portion of the state.
“Nevada’s veterans should not have to pay the price for Jacky Rosen’s loyalty to radical liberal Nancy Pelosi and her out-of-touch policies,” NRSC Spokesman Michael McAdams said in a statement. “Nevada voters want elected officials who will put the needs of Nevadans before partisan allegiance.”
At the same time, Democrats will continue to hammer home their message over Heller and his votes on Senate Republicans’ proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act with billboards near the Las Vegas Strip this week.
A mobile video billboard will show Heller smiling and laughing at a White House lunch with his fellow senators during which the president needled Heller over his wavering positions on health care, saying, “He wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?”
“Senator Heller told us he’d protect our health care. Then he voted to threaten health care for 328,000 Nevadans,” the ad says. “Tell Heller to wipe that grin off his face and start working for Nevadans. Our health care isn’t a joke.”
Heller voted at the end of July to proceed to debate on the Senate Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That proposal, which Heller eventually voted against, would have resulted in 328,000 Nevadans losing health care, according to a report by the Children’s Advocacy Alliance and Nevadans Together for Medicaid.
A stationary billboard will also display a static version of the same message, saying that Heller “voted to threaten health care for 328,000 Nevadans.”
Whatever happens in the Republican primary, we need to be ready for the general election. Click here to donate and get involved with Rosen’s campaign.