拉斯维加斯-共和党人希望能成为他们的第51位参议员，让他们重新掌权的人，最近在拉斯维加斯一个喧闹的乡村音乐酒吧走上舞台，挤满了兴奋的选民。
亚当·拉索尔特(Adam Laxalt)是内华达州共和党参议员的孙子，也是一名公开承认的保守派，在2018年竞选州长失败前担任州检察长。酒吧里坐在他旁边的是佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯聚会这位2024年总统候选人刚刚结束了惩罚迪士尼的立法，因为迪士尼反对他在幼儿园到三年级的新法律中暴露性取向和性别认同的教学。
拉克索尔特已经因过于强硬而受到批评，在过去15年里，他在一个主要选举民主党人的州赢得了一场比赛。但他称民主党参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯·梅斯托(Catherine Cortez Masto)是他在11月的潜在对手，是党派问题。
“内华达州值得有人在我们需要勇气的时候脱离激进的左翼，站在我们的国家一边，”拉克索尔特对挥舞着“爱国者支持拉克索尔特”标语的支持者欢呼说。"我们需要独立，需要有人脱离该党，与我们站在一起。"
内华达州是共和党今年希望夺回平分秋色的参议院的核心，并有可能在少数族裔选民中取得长期进展。这是第三个最多元化的州，但自2008年以来，民主党的优势一直在稳步缩小，当时巴拉克·奥巴马成为他的政党12年来第一位赢得内华达州的总统候选人。
推翻科尔特斯·马斯托不仅会让共和党获得控制所需的额外席位——前提是他们不会失去现有的任何席位——还会让他们有资格吹嘘自己在移民社区中有更大的吸引力。
这也是一个迹象，表明激进保守派面临的障碍比想象的要少。
拉克索尔特担任了一届内华达州司法部长，然后在2018年的州长竞选中彻底失败。2020年，他在内华达州共同主持了唐纳德·特朗普总统的竞选活动，并重复了特朗普关于选举受到选民欺诈影响的谎言。
拉克索尔特也是堕胎权的强烈反对者，民主党人希望，如果美国最高法院上周发布一份意见草案，推翻具有里程碑意义的罗伊诉韦德案的裁决，这将成为他更大的弱点。当他同时称赞潜在的意见是“生命神圣性的历史性胜利”但淡化其在内华达州的影响时，他的困境很快变得清晰起来，在内华达州，选民们在1990年将堕胎权写入了州宪法。
Cortez Masto的工作人员表示，她无法接受采访，试图突出比赛中的反差。
“我的对手说，推翻罗伊诉韦德案并结束对女性选择权的保护是一场‘历史性的胜利’”，她在推特上写道。“我相信女性和她们的医生会做出对她们最有利的医疗保健决定，而不是政客。”
拉克索尔特的保守立场远远超出了堕胎。他警告说，甚至在11月投票之前，他可能会提起诉讼挑战选举。作为司法部长，他在枪支、税收和移民问题上与该州温和的共和党州长不和。
共和党人认为，在通货膨胀率处于40年来的最高水平、总统乔·拜登的支持率创下历史新低的一年里，这无关紧要。
该州共和党策略师杰里米·休斯(Jeremy Hughes)表示:“这次选举将聚焦于通胀、油价和乔·拜登的头两年任期。”。"在这种情况下，亚当·拉索尔特与绝大多数内华达州选民一致."
然而，内华达州有一位民主党参议员在共和党浪潮之年挑战不利局面的历史。2010年，参议员哈里·里德(Harry Reid)击败了共和党挑战者沙伦·安格尔(Sharron Angle)，将她描绘成移民问题上的极端分子，不适合担任更高的职位。民主党人对Laxalt也有类似的计划。
“选民已经拒绝了他，”科尔特斯·马斯托竞选团队的发言人乔希·马库斯-布兰克说。“他只会变得更糟。”
里德是内华达州和全国政坛的传奇人物，去年死于胰腺癌。2016年退休时，他亲手挑选了前司法部长科尔特斯·马斯托(Cortez Masto)作为民主党提名人。科尔特斯·梅斯托是第一位拉丁裔美国参议员。今年的选举将是里德去世后自吹自擂的政治运作的第一次考验。
当他的政治机器发挥作用时，民主党人能够通过团结大量工人阶级和少数民族人口，承诺保护他们的经济利益、移民需求或两者兼而有之，赢得内华达州。
但是，由于该州的人口流动性很大，民主党依赖于来自不太可能投票的社区的贫困选民，所以让足够多的人出现是非常昂贵的。当该党没有足够的竞选资金时——比如在2014年，拉克索尔特当选司法部长的那一年——民主党可能会被击败。
Cortez Masto已被证明是一个多产的竞选筹款人，截至3月底，手头有1100万美元的现金。
但随着核心民主党选民，特别是年轻选民，对拜登的表现感到沮丧，可能很难获得现任所需的选民。拉斯维加斯的民主党策略师安德烈斯·拉米雷斯(Andres Ramirez)说，这个问题将取决于内华达州的具体问题。
拉米雷斯说:“这次选举，至少在内华达州，与拜登的关系将更少，而是与我们自己的内部候选人和投票率的关系。”。
拉索尔特还不是共和党提名人。他将在6月14日的初选中面对其他四名竞争者，其中包括山姆·布朗，这位前美国陆军上尉在阿富汗受重伤后获得了紫心勋章。
但拉克萨尔特得到了川普的支持，也得到共和党高层的广泛支持，上周德桑蒂斯和得克萨斯州参议员特德·克鲁兹都参加了他在拉斯维加斯地区的竞选活动。
虽然从华盛顿到内华达州需要很长时间的飞行，但它已经成为考虑竞选总统的政客们的热门目的地。该州举行了全国最初四场提名竞争之一——内华达州2020年的党团会议夹在新罕布什尔州和南卡罗来纳州的初选之间——也是几个财大气粗的共和党捐助者的家园。
共和党人也继续对他们在银州的前景寄予厚望，认为科尔特斯·马斯托没有表现出像她的前任里德那样灵活和好斗的政治家。
与2010年形成鲜明对比的是，当时里德将捍卫一项被称为“梦想法案”的亲移民法案作为他连任竞选的核心内容，科尔特斯·马斯托(Cortez Masto)与其他民主党人一起质疑拜登努力撤销疫情规则，这些规则使越境者更难在美国申请庇护
拉克索尔特认为她应该早点改变自己的方法。
“如果她决定成为她将要竞选的温和派，如果她决定成为乔·曼钦，她可以为这个州得到她想要的任何东西，”拉索尔特在亨德森郊区的共和党乡村俱乐部对观众说，他指的是西弗吉尼亚州温和派民主党人，他阻止了拜登议程的主要部分。“她本可以站出来反对总统，并说，‘不是为了我们的内华达州。’"
Cortez Masto迄今为止一直坚持低调的活动，宣传她为内华达州带来胜利的能力，例如作为去年两党基础设施一揽子计划的一部分，为水循环项目筹集了4.5亿美元，为抗击野火筹集了34亿美元。
“参议员得到了她的州，”她的竞选发言人马库斯·布兰克说。“她已经能够完成很多事情，并产生了很大的影响。”
GOP pins hopes on Nevada's Laxalt to help win Senate control
LAS VEGAS -- The man Republicans hope could be their 51st senator, putting them back in power, took the stage recently at a rowdy country music bar in Las Vegas packed with excited voters.
Adam Laxalt is the grandson of a Republican senator from Nevada and an avowed conservative who was state attorney general before losing a 2018 race for governor. By his side in the bar was Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, a likely candidate for theparty’s 2024 presidential nomination who was fresh off his legislation punishing Disney for opposing his new law baring instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade.
Laxalt has already drawn criticism for being too hard-line to win a race in a state that has mostly elected Democrats over the past 15 years. But he called Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, his potential opponent in November, the partisan problem.
“Nevada deserves someone that will break from the radical left and stand with our state when we need courage," Laxalt said to cheers from supporters waving “Patriots for Laxalt” signs. “We need independence and someone that will break from that party and stand with us."
Nevada is central to the GOP's hopes this year to retake the evenly-split Senate and potentially make longer-term inroads with minority voters. It's the third most-diverse state, but Democratic margins have been steadily shrinking here since 2008, when Barack Obama became his party's first presidential candidate to carry Nevada in 12 years.
Toppling Cortez Masto would not only give Republicans the additional seat needed for control — provided they do not lose any seats they now hold — but bragging rights to having greater appeal among immigrant communities.
It also would be a sign there are fewer barriers to aggressive conservatives than assumed.
Laxalt served a single term as Nevada's attorney general, then was soundly defeated in his 2018 gubernatorial bid. In 2020, he co-chaired President Donald Trump's campaign in Nevada and repeated Trump's lies about the election being swung by voter fraud.
Laxalt is also a strong opponent of abortion rights, which Democrats hope will become a bigger vulnerability for him if the U.S. Supreme Court follows through with a draft opinion released last week that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. His dilemma quickly became clear when he simultaneously praised the potential opinion as “an historic victory for the sanctity of life” but played down ts impact in Nevada, where voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution in 1990.
Cortez Masto, whose staff said she was not available for an interview for this story, tried to highlight the contrast in the race.
“My opponent says that overturning Roe v. Wade and ending protections for a woman’s right to choose is a ‘historic victory,’” she tweeted. “I trust women and their doctors to make the health care decisions that are best for them — not politicians.”
Laxalt's conservative positions go well beyond abortion. He has warned that he may file lawsuits challenging the election even before the November vote. As attorney general he feuded with the state's moderate Republican governor over guns, taxes and immigration.
Republicans argue that will not matter in a year when inflation is at 40-year highs and President Joe Biden’s approval numbers are scraping record lows.
“This election will be focused on inflation, the price of gas and Joe Biden's first two years in office,” said Jeremy Hughes, a GOP strategist in the state. “Under that scenario, Adam Laxalt is in line with a vast majority of Nevada voters.”
There is a history in Nevada, however, of a Democratic senator defying the odds during a Republican wave year. In 2010, Sen. Harry Reid beat GOP challenger Sharron Angle by portraying her as extreme on immigration and unfit for higher office. Democrats have similar plans for Laxalt.
“Voters already rejected him,” said Josh Marcus-Blank, a spokesman for Cortez Masto’s campaign. “He’s only gotten worse.”
Reid, a legendary figure in Nevada and national politics, died of pancreatic cancer last year. He hand-picked Cortez Masto, herself a former attorney general, as the Democratic nominee when he retired in 2016. Cortez Masto is the first Latina U.S. senator. This year's election will be the first test of Reid's vaunted political operation since he died.
When his political machine has worked, Democrats have been able to win Nevada by rallying its heavily working-class, minority population with promises to protect their economic interests, immigration needs or both.
But because the state has a highly transient population and Democrats rely on poorer voters from communities that are less likely to vote, it's very expensive to get enough people to show up. When there isn't sufficient campaign money available to the party — such as in 2014, the year that Laxalt was elected attorney general — Democrats can get crushed.
Cortez Masto has proven to be a prolific campaign fundraiser, with $11 million in cash on hand as of the end of March.
But with core Democratic voters, especially young ones, depressed over Biden's performance, it may be challenging to turn out the voters the incumbent needs. The issue will hinge on questions specific to Nevada, said Andres Ramirez, a Democratic strategist in Las Vegas.
“This election, at least in Nevada, is going to have less to do with Biden than with our own internal candidates and with turnout,” Ramirez said.
Laxalt is not the Republican nominee yet. He faces four other contestants in the June 14 primary, including Sam Brown, a former U.S. Army captain who earned a Purple Heart after being severely wounded in Afghanistan.
But Laxalt has the endorsement of Trump, as well as the backing of a wide swath of the GOP establishment, as seen last week when he was joined at Las Vegas-area campaign appearances by both DeSantis and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Though it's a long flight from Washington, Nevada has become a popular destination for politicians thinking of running for president. The state holds one of the initial four nominating contests in the nation — Nevada's caucus in 2020 was sandwiched between the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries — and is also home to several deep-pocketed Republican donors.
Republicans also continue to have high hopes for their prospects in the Silver State, believing Cortez Masto has not shown herself to be as nimble and pugilistic a politician as her predecessor, Reid.
In contrast to 2010, when Reid made defense of a pro-immigrant bill known as the DREAM Act the centerpiece of his reelection bid, Cortez Masto has joined other Democrats in questioning Biden's efforts to roll back pandemic rules that made it harder for border-crossers to apply for asylum in the U.S.
Laxalt contends she should have changed her approach earlier.
“If she decided to be the moderate she’s gonna run as, if she decided to be Joe Manchin, she could have gotten anything she wanted for this state,” Laxalt told a Republican country club audience in suburban Henderson, referring to the West Virginia moderate Democrat who has blocked major parts of Biden's agenda. “She could have stood against the president and said, ‘Not for our state of Nevada.’”
Cortez Masto has so far stuck to low-key events promoting her ability to deliver wins for Nevada, such as securing $450 million for water recycling projects and $3.4 billion to combat wildfires as part of last year’s bipartisan infrastructure package.
“The senator gets her state,” her campaign spokesman, Marcus-Blank, said. “She's been able to get a lot of things done and make a big difference.”
