Kudos to April Corbin Girnus at the Nevada Current for calling out former Attorney General and current U.S. Senate candidate, Adam Laxalt (R. NV), for speaking out of both sides of his mouth on both courting Latino voters while also pushing the violent and racist “Great Replacement Theory”:
In audio reviewed by the Current of a campaign meet-and-greet in Elko on Oct. 2, 2021, Laxalt can be heard suggesting immigrants are a part of a strategy by “the left” to destroy American values.
“It’s scary scary stuff — 200,000 people pouring over the border every single month,” he said. “Is the media covering this wall to wall? Of course not. Because this is what the left wants. The left wants to radically transform this nation and they want to destroy the values that made this country a great nation. Our constitutional system, our families, our church communities, the conservative fabric of this nation. They know they need to get rid of that so that they can transform our country.”
At a separate campaign event held on the same day in Winnemucca, Laxalt characterized Trump as “holding the line” against attacks from “the left” on “our constitutional system,” “the rule of law” and “the Judeo-Christian values. That made this one of the greatest nations on Earth.”
Elko and Winnemucca are both 86% white, according to 2022 Census data.
Months after making those comments at private campaign events, in March, a “Latinos for Laxalt” campaign would launch in Las Vegas with an event featuring a mariachi band, free tacos and a Trump advisor who last year characterized Afghan refugees as rapists and terrorists.
Latinos make up one-fifth of Nevada’s total eligible voters, and their turnout is seen as crucial, particularly for Cortez Masto, whose seat is seen as one of the most vulnerable in a U.S. Senate controlled by the narrowest margin possible.
The reality of those demographics seem to be at odds with an embracing of replacement theory, which routinely blames Latino immigrants for real and perceived problems in the United States.
Laxalt is facing a surprising challenge from veteran Sam Brown in the GOP primary next month, but he is largely still considered the frontrunner. And Democratic groups are already campaigning against him. Somos PAC, a Latino-led organization focused on mobilizing Latino voters, last week announced a $4 million campaign targeting Laxalt and canvassing for Cortez Masto.
Laxalt has not publicly commented on the May 15 Buffalo shooting or the racist motives of its perpetrator.
But, days after the shooting, Laxalt released a public statement accusing Cortez Masto of “ignoring the needs of our state’s Latino community.” He also touted his endorsement by the National Rifle Association and boasted that he is “the only candidate for Senate in Nevada who has an actual record of successfully fighting to defend our 2nd Amendment rights.”
Luckily Latino groups are seeing what Laxalt is trying to do and are fighting back:
Somos PAC plans to spend $4 million on a statewide TV and digital ad campaign targeting Latino voters as the group aims to keep the first and only Latina in the Senate in office. The ads, shared first with POLITICO, will air in both English and Spanish over the next two months.
The group’s campaign — its first ad buy this cycle and one of Somos’ largest media spends since it launched in 2019 — is the latest reminder that Democrats will need Latinos to turn out in strong numbers if they want to win the battleground state and, ultimately, keep control of the Senate in November.
“Sen. Cortez Masto has done a great job of being out there, talking about the positives of herself and the work she’s doing to help Latinos in Nevada,” said Melissa Morales, founder and president of Somos PAC. “We’re making sure that [Latinos] know who Adam Laxalt is and what his track record is. It’s clear that his policy priorities have been extremely detrimental to the Latino and Hispanic communities of Nevada.”
The ad campaign is only one piece of the work Somos will be doing this cycle in Nevada, where the group has a permanent infrastructure and staff on the ground, Morales said. The group is using “every single tactic necessary to reach people,” including mailers, community organizing, door-to-door canvassing and culture events.
Latinos have long been regarded as a key constituency for Democrats in Nevada, where Cortez Masto won her seat in 2016 by fewer than 27,000 votes. More than 400,000 Latinos are eligible to vote there, making up 20 percent of the state’s total eligible voters.
Also, this looks shady:
Updated financial disclosures filed earlier this month show Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former attorney general Adam Laxalt was paid more than $1.5 million in calendar year 2022 by a high-profile Washington, D.C., law firm, though his continued employment status with the firm remains unclear.
The new report follows an initial disclosure from last year that showed Laxalt was paid more than $2.2 million by the firm, Cooper & Kirk, after briefly exiting electoral politics in the wake of his 2018 loss in the race for governor.
A portion of the disclosure lists Laxalt’s role as a partner as running from March 2019 through the present, though a separate portion lists the firm as a “former employer” and Laxalt is not listed among the firm’s partners online.
However, recent disclosures on the right-wing news website Breitbart — a client of Cooper & Kirk’s — still describe Laxalt as a partner in stories that name him, and add that Laxalt is “not actively engaged or working on any matters for Breitbart News.”
A spokesman for Laxalt’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment to clarify his employment status, and a request for comment from Cooper & Kirk was not returned before publication.
FYI, Laxalt is the frontrunner in his primary:
Political newcomer Sam Brown has made Nevada’s U.S. Senate Republican primary a two-person race, but former Attorney General Adam Laxalt remains the odds-on favorite to win the June 14 contest, according to a new Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights poll.
The poll of 500 likely GOP primary voters, conducted between May 10th and May 12th, showed Laxalt winning 45 percent of voters with Brown taking 30 percent. The poll had a 4.4 percent margin of error.
“I think Laxalt is in a good position, but not in a safe position right now,” Mike Noble, chief of research and managing partner of OH Predictive Insights, said in an interview.
Even though his own party doesn’t want him to be the nominee:
Bucking presumed frontrunners and Donald Trump-endorsed candidates, the Nevada Republican Party voted to endorse Joey Gilbert for governor and Captain Sam Brown for U.S. senator at its state convention on Saturday.
At Palace Station in Las Vegas, party leadership and delegates from all Nevada counties came together to endorse preferred candidates ahead of the June 14 primary election.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and Adam Laxalt have long been considered frontrunners for governor and Senate, respectively, due to polling numbers and fundraising totals, but Nevada Republicans chose to ignore party leadership recommendations. It caught some people off guard.
“Frankly, it's a surprise, because it also speaks to how little the supposedly Republican establishment controls the party,” said Michael Green, associate professor of history at UNLV. “And if you think about it, Donald Trump was supposed to be outside the Republican establishment in the first place. And now the convention won't even go for the candidates he endorses. I think some interesting things are going on.”
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