GOP Primary Recommendations: Nevada Congressional Races

(Chuck Muth) – Before getting to Nevada’s four congressional GOP primary races, let me clarify yesterday’s column on Nevada’s U.S. Senate race.

I didn’t include an actual recommendation of a candidate.  We’re still more than three weeks from Election Day and another week before Early Voting.  And I’m undecided.  As such, my recommendation was for Sam Brown and Jeff Gunter to agree to a one-on-one debate.

That said, if Trump endorses Gunter, I’ll take that into consideration.  If he endorses Brown, I’ll take that into consideration.  If he doesn’t endorse anyone, I’ll take that into consideration.

But my biggest consideration remains whether or not Brown agrees to debate Gunter one-on-one – just as he challenged Adam Laxalt to do two years ago.  If he refuses, I’ll take that into consideration.

So there’s still a lot up in the air in this race.

Which is one of the main reasons why I’m an Election Day voter.  I’ve been around long enough to know that potentially race-changing developments happen the weekend before Election Day.

Now, I know many of you believe Brown’s the only candidate who can defeat incumbent Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen in the general election. But I haven’t reached that conclusion yet.

So I want to hear more from both candidates – and am annoyed at the hypocrisy of Brown’s campaign in refusing to debate Gunter.  As a reminder, here’s what Brown said two years ago…

“I’m Sam Brown and Adam Laxalt is afraid to get in the arena with me in front of you. This is the most important U.S. Senate race in the country and leaders are not afraid of a fight. I want a one-on-one prime time debate in front of Nevada voters.  Adam has rejected that. … Nevadans deserve better.  Nevadans deserve leadership.”

Why wasn’t he “afraid of a fight” with Adam Laxalt but is apparently “afraid to get in the arena” with Gunter?

And if he can’t handle Gunter, how in the world is he ever going to handle Rosen and the far-left Democrat machine that’ll bust a gut trying to defend her?

There are some top GOP leaders attempting to organize a Brown-Gunter debate in Las Vegas sometime before Election Day.  If Sam believes he’s the most conservative candidate who can win, and Gunter isn’t, he should face him, one-on-one/man-to-man, and make his case for the Republican voters he wishes to represent.

Now, on to the House of Representatives…

In Congressional District 2, this is a no-brainer: incumbent Rep. Mark Amodei.

He’s not only the sole Republican in Nevada’s delegation, but he’s a “cardinal” in a leadership position.  It’d be foolish and politically suicidal to throw that away.

In Congressional District 4, that’s another no-brainer: John Lee.

John is a former State Assemblyman and former State Senator.  He’s also the former mayor of North Las Vegas and saved the city when it was on the brink of bankruptcy.

He’s experienced and well-known in the district.  If anyone has a chance to dethrone incumbent Democrat Steve Horsford this year, it’s John Lee.

In Congressional District 1, my recommendation is Flemming Larsen.

Larsen ran for the State Assembly in 2022 and lost by just 384 votes out of more than 20,000 votes cast.  More impressively, that was in a district in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 5,557 active voters going into Election Day.

The man clearly did something right.

In addition, Larsen has put together an extremely impressive campaign this cycle in which he’s selflessly included “down-ballot” Republican candidates for local and legislative offices at his events.  He’s a team player helping to lift all GOP boats.

Nothing against the other candidates, but if anyone has a real shot at sending incumbent Democrat Rep. Dina “I’m Not Happy” Titus packing, it’s Flemming Larsen.

Now as for Congressional District 3 against incumbent Democrat Rep. Susie Lee, I’m undecided.  It’s between Marty O’Donnell and Drew Johnson.  None of the other candidates have a shot in the general election.

I know a lot of conservative Republicans like Johnson.  He is a solid conservative policy-wise.  But as a candidate, I’m not convinced his conservative street cred can win in this Democrat-majority district.

In addition, he’s been running for over a year and has only raised $111,000 from donors, not counting the $300,000 he’s loaned to his campaign.  That’s not exactly impressive.  Heck, David Brog – who’s running for a comparatively tiny state Assembly seat this cycle – raised more in less time.

Johnson also lost a county commission race last cycle to probably the most corrupt Democrat in the entire state.  Why are we to believe he’d fare better this time around in a much bigger, much more expensive race for Congress?

Frankly, I still believe Johnson should have run against Democrat Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager.  He could’ve beaten him.  But ego got in the way of political common sense.

As for Marty O’Donnell, we had a long meeting together a few weeks ago, and I’m convinced he’s philosophically conservative enough, but not so outwardly conservative that he’ll scare off independent voters.

He’s a very successful businessman but is running for the first time.  So he’s untested when it comes to the campaign trail and won’t have the policy chops on issues that Johnson has.  But electability is what I’m looking at.

O’Donnell entered the race late and has only been raising money for a little over a month.  However, he’s seeded his campaign with $500,000 out of his own pocket.  And he’s been endorsed by Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

If he runs a solid campaign, I believe he can beat Susie Lee in November.

But I still have a lot of questions and would like to see Marty and Drew face off one-on-one in a pre-election debate to help answer the unanswered questions about both candidates.

That’s it for today.  I’ll get to some legislative GOP primaries next.  Don’t touch that dial!

Oh, and by the way, I reserve the right to change my mind on any given race right up to the time I actually cast my ballot if new information emerges.

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.  You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.