* All of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s endorsed candidates for legislative seats won their primaries yesterday. Now the hard part begins.
* The “closest” race was in Assembly District 21 where April Arndt defeated Jon Petrick by over ten points. All the other candidates won in landslides. Off to the general!
* Sam Brown easily won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. He’s got a good shot at knocking off Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen – especially if Trump does well in Nevada.
* As such, expect big money from outside groups to be poured into this race.
* “Cardinal” Mark Amodei easily won his primary for Nevada’s 2nd congressional district and will certainly win re-election again in November. Big GOP district.
* In Nevada’s three competitive congressional races where the GOP hopes to flip seats, Republican voters picked Mark Robertson (CD1), Drew Johnson (CD3), and John Lee (CD4) as their standard bearers.
* Lee is the strongest GOP candidate, but also in the toughest district. Robertson and Johnson are going to have a tough time in the general election, as both are perceived as being “too conservative” for their Democrat-majority districts.
* Both have shots, but don’t expect a ton of outside money being spent on those races – which is going to make it even tougher. They’re both gonna need Trump to do extremely well in Clark County to have a shot.
* Perhaps the best news for conservatives: Former GOP Assemblyman John Ellison easily won his primary for State Senate District 19 with 60 percent of the vote.
* As no Democrat filed for this seat, SENATOR Ellison will return to Carson City next session. Welcome back, John!
* BTW, one of Ellison’s opponents, the deranged Chelsey Fischer, got crushed. The looney-tune only got 12% of the vote.
* In other news…
* So much for the Republican Party’s vaunted “Bank Your Vote” program.
* Remember this twit-tweet from Nevada GOP National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah boasting about her personal “ballot harvesting” effort a week ago?
* Well, with some mail-in ballots still trickling in, we already know that voter turnout for yesterday’s Republican primary was…dismal.
* Of course, Siggy and the GOP are going to be taking bows and spinning the dismal turnout as somehow successful. And when they do, here are some questions to ask them…
* How many Republican voters who did NOT vote in the 2022 primary voted in the 2024 primary thanks to your Bank the Vote program?
* How many Republicans who voted on Election Day in the 2022 primary instead voted my mail or voted early in the 2024 primary thanks to your Bank the Vote program?
* How many ballots did the party “harvest”? If they can’t tell you, then they weren’t tracking and nothing they claim can be believed.
* And how many of those “harvested” voters would have voted anyway because they’ve done so in the past – meaning you didn’t harvest non-voting voters; you harvested voters who would have cast ballots anyway?
* All of that information will be easily available once the smoke clears and the results are certified.
* But bet on this: The GOP will take credit for doing things they won’t PROVE they did. It’ll all be smoke-and-mirrors. Total BS.
* As I wrote ad nauseum months ago, the GOP *should* have used the Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) in February to field-test its Bank Your Vote program.
* Instead, they focused on their competing caucus two days later and discouraged voters from voting in the PPP.
* Stupid is as stupid does.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“I’m excited about this evening’s resounding primary victories. Some really good candidates emerged tonight that are committed to a shared, common-sense agenda focused on lowering costs for Nevada families, adding choice and accountability to our education system, and restoring balance in state government. I look forward to campaigning with these great candidates and will do my part to send trusted leaders to Carson City next year.” – Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.