* The question was simple: Would the 168 RNC members vote to go in a new direction with a new leader or continue with the same leader who’s overseen three straight losing election cycles?
* The incumbent was Trump appointee, Ronna McDaniel, seeking a 4th term. Her opponents were Harmeet Dhillon, Cali’s National Committeewoman, and MyPillow’s Mike Lindell. I got to meet each briefly.
* Since we’re talking about Republicans who never blow an opportunity to blow an opportunity, the result was as expected. 111 members voted to stick with the losing coach, 51 voted for grassroots-supported Dhillon, and 4 voted for Lindell in the secret ballot election.
* Nevada’s National Committeewoman, Sigal Chattah, endorsed Dhillon. Nevada Chairman Mike McDonald and National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid endorsed McDaniel.
* So Republicans have chosen to go into the 2024 election cycle with a 3-time loser running the national party organization and a 4-time loser running the Nevada GOP. What could go wrong?
* Speaking of the Nevada GOP, I ran into someone at the RNC meeting who again tried to excuse the party for losing 2022 by pointing out that 11% more Republicans voted than Democrats.
* In the Fiesta Bowl earlier this month, Michigan scored a whopping 45 points; the third-highest score racked up in the bowl’s history. Impressive, right? Except their opponent, TCU, scored 51.
* There was no trophy for second place.
* The bottom line is this: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt lost by 8,000 votes while 155,000+ active registered Republicans stayed home.
* In the 2020 presidential election in Nevada, over 112,000 active registered Republicans did not turn out to vote in the election where Donald Trump lost Nevada by 33,000 votes.
* The Nevada GOP had TWO YEARS to contact those 112,000 Republicans and get them to the polls in 2022. Did they? In all the butt-covering analysis I’ve seen since November, I’ve never seen, or even heard of, a report on what the party did to activate those 112,000 and what the results were.
* Why not? My guess is the party simply dropped the ball and didn’t bother focusing on these non-voters, which grew from 112,000 in 2020 to 155,000 in 2022. Heckuva job guys.
* But here are some other figures our executive director, Raven Omojola, put together for me: 364,570 Democrats voted statewide in 2022; 392,601 Republicans voted; and 200,516 non-partisans voted.
* If some 28,000 more Republicans voted than Democrats, how did Laxalt lose by 8,000?
* Clearly, the non-partisans swung over to the Dem side in big numbers and/or a lot of Republicans who did vote did NOT vote for the GOP candidate.
* For two years, the Republican Party told voters that our elections were fixed and their vote really didn’t count. It also told GOP voters that a giant “red wave” was coming; a wave so big that many Republican voters decided their vote wasn’t necessary.
* And too many of the GOP candidates ran as red-meat conservatives in a state – and especially Clark County – that’s at least purple, if not blue.
* It was a massive messaging failure from top to bottom.
* Lastly, it’s now been almost three months since the general election. I was told at the RNC meeting that some focus groups have been conducted in an effort to find out why so many
non-partisans chose not to vote GOP.
* Constantly harping on unproven allegations of election fraud in 2020 was at the top of the list.
* But what about the non-voting Republicans? Has anyone at the Nevada GOP, you know, picked up the phone and called any of those 112,000 Republicans who didn’t vote and ask them why not? Seems to me that’s the FIRST thing the party pooh-bahs should have done.
* They haven’t.
* Running the 2024 elections with the same leaders and expecting a different result is…um, insane. But that’s exactly what the GOP’s central committees and RNC members have decided to do.
* We’re doomed.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“The results were not what we or hundreds of thousands of supporters around the country were hoping for, and I think the party is going to have to deal with that fallout of being in a
disconnect from the grassroots. The party is not united, but it’s our job to
try and unite the party, and that’s going to mean changes at the RNC.” – Harmeet Dhillon after not winning the RNC election
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and
blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.