What Drew Johnson’s Not Telling You about Heidi Kasama

(Chuck Muth) – A lone protestor stood outside the doors of a meet-and-greet I hosted last week for Republican Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama who recently entered the GOP primary race for Nevada’s 3^rd Congressional District.

Neil – who lied and told me his name was “George” – was passing out a flyer highlighting something I wrote about Kasama that has been latched upon by one of her opponents, Drew Johnson.

Alas, it’s a lie by omission.

The issue was a statement of support for Democrat Rep. Susie Lee made under Kasama’s name when she was head of the realtors’ association before she became a candidate herself for the state Assembly.

The realtors’ PAC also endorsed and donated to Lee’s campaign against the GOP’s nominee that year, Dan Rodimer.

That was indeed an issue of concern when Kasama announced her bid for an Assembly seat that raised a red flag for me.  And I wrote about those concerns in December 2019.

Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

A month later, on January 21, 2020, I published a follow-up to the Kasama post…

(A)fter being endorsed by the Republican Assembly Caucus a couple weeks ago, Kasama came under fire for a 2018 endorsement statement on behalf of Democrat Rep. Susie Lee (Nevada Congressional District 3) that was attributed to her.

But as Heidi (pronounced Hay-Dee) explained to me at a meeting a week ago (at Tommy Bahama’s over mai-tais!), it was actually the Realtors’ PAC membership board, not her, that voted to endorse Lee.

And as she further explained in an open letter to Republicans published over the weekend on Nevada News & Views…

“(T)he Nevada Realtors have a governing set of bylaws that the organization must follow. Section 9.1 of the Realtor’s bylaws states that the President is designated as the official ‘Spokesperson’ for the organization – and that all official communication, from the organization to the public, comes from the President.”

Fair enough.

And to tell you the truth, I’m more concerned with where she is now, personally, than what she said on behalf of her organization’s PAC two years ago.  And here’s her statement today in that regard…

“Susie Lee has been a huge disappointment.  Like all too many politicians, the way she sold herself to voters is not what voters got once they opened the package.  She simply has not been the problem solver who would work in a bipartisan fashion as she promised.

“Instead, she’s voted with Nancy Pelosi 98% of the time – including voting to impeach the President of the United States who won Nevada’s Third Congressional District.  Sadly, Susie has delivered nothing but partisan rancor and obstruction.

“She’s had her chance.  She broke her word.  She needs to be replaced.”

I’ll also note that over the weekend Heidi also signed and sent me a copy of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.  And THAT speaks volumes to me.”

To be sure, Heidi’s voting record in Carson City hasn’t been the most conservative.  It’s fair to say Drew is more conservative than Heidi.

In fact, all three of Susie Q’s Republican opponents in the last three elections were arguably more conservative than Heidi based on her more moderate voting record.

But now we’re talking about the 3^rd Congressional District which has, as of the end of July, 26,739 more registered Democrats than Republicans and a whopping 164,440 non-partisan voters.

Compare that to the district’s make-up on Election Day 2020 – before the Democrats redrew the district lines following the census.  In that election, Democrats only outnumbered Republicans by 10,143 voters with 133,346 non-partisans.

In that election, Republican nominee Rodimer lost to Lee by 12,446 votes.

Drew is arguing that he’s more conservative than Heidi.  Fine.

Indeed, he may be the most conservative candidate in this year’s race.  But in my opinion, he’s not the most conservative candidate who can WIN this seat.

If Republican voters want to nominate the most conservative candidate in the 2024 primary race in a big Democrat-majority district, Drew’s your guy.

But if Republican primary voters want to actually flip this seat red – after all, majorities get to lead and the GOP only has a thin majority they could lose in the House right now – Kasama would give them the best chance.

I haven’t changed. The political landscape has.

You can accept that reality…or nominate another Sigal Chattah/Jim Marchant-type conservative candidate who will likely go down in flames in the 2024 general election.

And before Neil and Drew’s Crew again try to use my words against Kasama in this campaign, they better do their homework and tell the ENTIRE story.

Of course, they won’t.

I just did.

P.S.  In a text message after I wrote about this race in Muth’s Truths PLUS+ a couple days ago – where I again argued he should be running against Assembly Speaker Steve “Donut Boy” Yeager instead of Congress – Drew wrote…

“Chuck, I don’t want to be in the Assembly. … I’m running for CD3 because I’ve been working at federal think tanks, writing bills and meeting with members of Congress for almost 25 years.  I’m not qualified to run for Assembly in that same way.”

What a crock.

Drew was the founder of the Beacon Center of Tennessee (BCT), which described its mission as “providing expert empirical research and timely free market solutions to public policy issues in Tennessee.” (my emphasis)

BCT was also a member of the State Policy Network, “a group of state-level think tanks (my emphasis) promoting conservative policy.”

Tennessee is a state with a state legislature, just like Nevada – which Drew knows even though he’s only lived here a couple years.

The reality is, Drew has plenty of policy experience at the state level and is more than qualified to run for the Assembly.  Especially since the issues are the same as the federal level: taxes, spending, education, health care, crime, etc.

The only real difference is that being a congressman is more prestigious than being an assemblyman – and the pay is better.

7 Worst Habits of Highly Unelectable People

1. Picking the wrong race
2. Picking the wrong district
3. Picking the wrong issues
4. Picking the wrong time
5. Picking the wrong consultants
6. Picking unnecessary fights with the media
7. Picking door-knocking over fundraising

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“I’m very proud to endorse @heidikasama4nv for Congress. Nevadans can trust Heidi to be their voice in Washington, and I look forward to working with her to improve the lives of our citizens.” – Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, 8/30/23

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.