Alan Stock interviews George Harris, candidate for Nevada's State Senate District 8, about his campaign and his opponent, Marilyn Dondero Loop, contrasting his business background with Loop's administrative experience Harris criticized Gov. Lombardo's opponent, Aaron Ford, for being an activist and supporting policies he views as detrimental to Nevada. Harris emphasized his support for school choice and criticized administrative bloat. He also discussed his efforts to get voter ID on the ballot, which passed once before and is expected to pass again.
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Alan Stock 0:00
And a good morning, great to have you with us on this Thursday morning, which Thursday it's got to be Nevada News and Views Thursday, which it is. If you want the latest on what is going on with commentary and news on a local, statewide, and national basis, I encourage you to go to Nevada News and views.com Nevada News and views.com great source for information and commentaries, and joining us this morning on behalf of not only Nevada News and Views, but also as a part of his campaign for the state Senate District Number Eight, our good friend George Harris. And George, I want to thank you so much for joining us this morning. I appreciate it.
George Harris 0:40
I want to thank you for having me. It's always good to be on your show. Always get great text and emails after I appear on your show, so thank you.
Alan Stock 0:48
Well, you do a great job, and you know, I want to just say something that's very important to begin this whole thing. You and I both agree that the Governor Joe Lombardo has done a great job, and he is, he's been a great governor, and he has not been able to accomplish a lot of things he wanted to accomplish that would benefit the state safety wise, education wise, housing wise, and I can go on health wise, and a lot of other issues, and he would like to accomplish these things, but he needs more people in the state senate and assembly to support him in his positive efforts on behalf of the people of the state of Nevada. So we've got to get more folks like you in there in this coming election. November is the election, general election, and you're running a state district, Senate District eight, and we've got to get you in there. You're one of the key people, we've got to get in there. And I, and I want to wish you the best in your race. It is one of the most competitive races in Nevada, isn't it?
George Harris 1:54
It is the most competitive race, and, and you know, look, I'm only running a positive campaign, but there is contrast to real differences between myself and my opponent, Marilyn Don Darrell Loop. She's been in the legislature for 18 years. She really hasn't accomplished that much, but she's a go-along, get along person. She's probably a very nice lady. She's a former administrator for the school district, and she likes to tell everybody she was a teacher. She was a teacher 100 years ago. She was mostly an administrator, and you know, I'm, I've been very vocal about, about how we can fix the school system, mostly through school choice. But look, when, when you have a school district that's got more administrators and teachers, you know, as a businessman and a guy who ran a big company, it's easy to look at, it's easy to look and go, what, what's going on here, and look, the average, the average administrator makes about $148,000 a year with with benefits, and the average teacher makes about 78 to $82,000 a year with benefits, so I don't know why the teachers have a teacher's union. I would fire everybody in the teachers union. I mean, I'm just, look, I have no filter, and you know people say, “Oh, you can't, you know, they're going to come. I don't care, they're not doing their job when you have more administrators in the school district than you have teachers, that's a big red flag,
Alan Stock 3:26
And you put it out. I mean, you have more administrators making more money than the teachers who are in that classroom on the front line every day, day in and day out, for all these hours, and they're getting short shifted on this thing, and it's not right. The governor has tried to be able to help correct education to, and he has, to a degree, by having, making sure that the school districts are responsive to the changes that, that you know, they've initiated, and that they're accomplishing what they need to accomplish, so I mean he is, he has done a good job, but again we need to go further. School choice certainly is one option that that we've got to consider, among others, but and a very important one, and I appreciate the fact that you're focusing on that, and the fact that I just want to say one last thing about your opponent will talk to me more about her, but you know, being in the legislature for 18 years, it kind of blows my mind whether it's a Republican or Democrat, the legislators, legislatures and statewide and nationally, the US Senate and the Congress, these are never meant, or the presidency, these are never meant to be lifelong positions, which they, which they have become for a lot of people, and they should not be that way right now. 18 years, and we're, and we're not accomplishing more in education like we should have been. We got to get you in there, George. That's all I've got to say.
George Harris 5:01
Well, you know, in the military we used to have a saying called Road R O A D, you know, like a road,
Alan Stock 5:06
yeah,
George Harris 5:07
which is retired on active duty, and that's what she's probably been, as I've gone back and look at her voting record, I mean, she, she, she laments everything and turns everything over to her lobbyist friends, and and what she doesn't do, which I find hilarious. Her brother is Ron Dondero. He's a lobbyist in 18 years, except for this last special session, where it was so verbalized that she would not disclose the conflict of her brother being a lobbyist. She's never disclosed that her brother's a lobbyist, and comes in front of her on a regular basis, and he gets whatever he wants, and he was, he and his, his, his firm, which is RNR Advertising, were the lobbyists for, were some of the lobbyists for the movie studio, and they made such a mess about it, she finally disclosed that that was her brother, and then she literally yelled at Senator Robin Titus, and said, “Are you happy now, Robin? I mean, look, she's enriched her family, she's ethically challenged, and.. and it's.. it's not something taxpayers should put up with. I mean, she's going to have. she can't hide from the fact that that she voted for a whole bunch of legislation that benefited her brother.
Alan Stock 6:28
Well, that's true, and you know the the idea also is that if things were doing well right now here in Nevada, you'd say, well, why, why change things, but but the but the governor has tried to correct the problems that were brought about by the governor before him, and and he has been successful to some degree, but you get folks like your opponent voting for against the positive changes he wants to make. It's something I want to talk about. We come on back is voter ID, because you helped get the voter ID concept on the ballot, and it's been voted on once before, but it's coming up again. I want to talk about that. It's very, very important. We're trying to do this on a state basis. The Supreme Court said this is on a state basis. They control the elections well. Here we are in this state, trying to make positive changes happen, so I want to talk about that. We come on back. We've got George Harris joining us. He is the candidate for the state Senate District eight, and he is one of the best – I mean, the best candidate running now for the state senate. Some great people are running. We've got to get him in there. We're going to continue in just a moment with George Harris right here on Vegas at eight, and a good morning. Great to have you with us on this big Thursday morning, Nevada News and Views Thursday. And of course, we've got George Harris joining us, not only representing Nevada News and Views, but also from District Eight, the state Senate district race. And appreciate your being with us. I asked you something off the air, and I want to mention this. I apparently, I guess your opponent, Don, what's named Don Darryl Loup, is not going to debate you, and you know what I mean. She has been in the office, as you said, for 18 years, not that one, but you know, and state legislature, etc. for 18 years, and for her not to debate you means that she won't come out and speak to the people. I mean, she's definitely, definitely above it all, above the fray as far as she's concerned, and she doesn't want to talk with the little people, and that's to me.
George Harris 8:37
Well, she's not going to debate me, because one of the first questions I'm going to ask, is why have you never disclosed the fact that your brother is a lobbyist, and you're voting on legislation that benefits your family.
Alan Stock 8:48
Well, you said that she spoke in front of some seniors and mentioned the fact that that you were going to take away their social security. So, dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. You're not running for Congress, are you?
George Harris 9:02
No, and, and, and, and when one of these ladies called me, I said, ‘Ma'am, on top of all that being a lie, no state senator can affect Social Security. I'm on Social Security, why would I take Social Security away?
Alan Stock 9:17
So she, she out and out lied. I know she's against voter ID, and she is, you know, been with the, with the far left.
George Harris 9:27
She's on, she's on record as being, you know, look, look, the fact of the matter is, she's a Democrat Socialist of America member, in my opinion, because they have meetings here in Clark County, and she goes to those meetings, so she is,
Alan Stock 9:39
She's affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. This is the Mamdani, and the folks who are well, you got the mayor up in Seattle, and and all these others now who are coming out of the woodwork trying to get people to vote for socialist slash communist, and it's, and it's an amazing thing. When I was a kid, communists couldn't even run
George Harris 9:59
Well Alan, real quick, if you allow,
Alan Stock 10:01
for office at that point,
George Harris 10:03
if you'll allow me. I mean, look, we have to run the state, that's what the governor's tasked to do. He's the chief executive officer to run the state. The problem is, in our legislature, we have a third of our legislature that are activists, they have, don't, they're probably nice people in life, but they're not up there for the fact to better Nevada or make sure taxpayers, but they're up there because they're activists and they have certain agendas that they want to get done, and now you know over the years because of the way you know the way that like question seven is coming up, where people who shouldn't be voting or voting, or or someone, someone steals 250 ballots and votes all the ballots. You have a bunch of people up there who, who are activists, and you know what? When the governor gets up there, he can't be an activist. They go to him and they say, ‘Listen, we got a big problem. We don't have enough gas coming up to Nevada, because the policies in California, we don't have enough straws. We've got to figure out, you know, fix this problem. Those people can't even go to a meeting to figure out how to fix a problem, because they don't have a background to do that. You know, I'm going to be one of three business people in the legislature. The rest are either bureaucrats, retired teachers, retired, retired firefighters. I mean, and not that they're not good people, they're all good people, but you, someone has to run the state, someone has to run the business.
Alan Stock 11:33
One thing you did, you also got helped get the issue of voter ID before the people of the state, now that yes, once before, didn't it?
George Harris 11:45
Yeah, passed by the largest margin in state history. We got over a million votes, and it's going to pass again.
Alan Stock 11:51
When will it come up for a vote again?
George Harris 11:53
This elective cycle, in fact, it'll be the second time, and then it'll be in the Constitution. And when you go look, it's this very simple thing, you go do anything, you go to the airport, you go to, you have to show, if you go to Obama's new presidential library, you must show an ID to get in. Okay, so I don't know why all these, all these, and it's not Democrats in the neighborhoods, it's the elected Democrats, because they want to control and have power, it's that's it's that simple, and so they don't want this, so we did this initiative that that you must show an ID to vote. Okay, pretty simple.
Alan Stock 12:31
Very simple. And if it passes this November, it is the second in the Constitution, and then it goes to the Constitution. You know, I flew within the last week, I had to be in Omaha, and I came back, and I, when I flew out from Reed, and I flew back in from Omaha, each time I wanted to show them, I don't fly that often. You want to see my ticket? I had it in my little, the wallet in your phone, and they said, “No, no, only we need is your ID. That's literally, “Oh, I was the TSA pre-check”
George Harris 13:02
because you're in the computer when you buy,
Alan Stock 13:08
that was it, was just the ID. When you board the plane, you got to show your ticket,
George Harris 13:13
But you know what else, you're not doing, you're not getting a dime out of the bank unless you show the, unless you show your ID, okay?
Alan Stock 13:18
You know what, that I go to the bank all the time, and it's exactly, I have to show my ID,
George Harris 13:25
And you know, if you go to Walgreens or any other pharmacy to get to get medicine, you're not getting any medicine unless you show your ID. It's not that big of a deal, so why wouldn't you? Why would you complain that you had to show your ID when you're doing one of the most civically responsible things there is, which is to vote. Now, the great thing about,
Alan Stock 13:45
Let me add this also. If you don't have an ID, I know the state will give you one for free if this passes.
George Harris 13:52
Absolutely, first of all, the state's been given free IDs out forever. Look, here's the deal. The great thing about question seven is now you have to show an ID, but we, Dave Gibbs, God bless him, put a couple other good guard rails in there. If you get a mail-in ballot, you either have to put your last four-year social security in a box or the last four-year driver's license in a box in order to mail your thing in. Why? Because if someone gets hold of your ballot and fills it out, and they don't know your last four or your driver's license number, that that ballot is spoiled.
Alan Stock 14:28
Right.
George Harris 14:29
I mean, it's a very simple thing, very simple.
Alan Stock 14:33
It makes all the sense in the world, and I appreciate that you and Dave having done what you did to get this on the ballot. It passed once before, again, it's going to be before the voters this coming November. I encourage everyone to vote for it again. Let's do the right thing at the same time. Let's vote for the governor for another term to get accomplished. And then let's get George Harris in there, District Eight state senate race,
George Harris 15:00
Real quick, Alan. The reason, the reason we have to vote for the governor, because the guy running against him, Aaron Ford, is an activist. He has taken taxpayer money without the permission of the legislature nor the governor's office, and millions and millions of dollars in filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, environmental stuff, where you know, yes, he's elected, but you know there's got to be some checks and balances. He's strictly an activist.
Alan Stock 15:27
I'm up against the clock, I got to run. I've got to say one last thing, and that is that he also, Aaron Ford supports boys being able to go into girls' locker rooms and play on girls teams. He is not supporting this idea of girls being able to have their own sports. It is horrendous what he wants to do. He is an activist. He would be the worst thing for the state. George Harris, I want to thank you for joining us. If people want to know more about the campaign, how can they find out?
George Harris 15:56
Go to VoteGeorgeHarris.com
Alan Stock 15:59
And, of course, if you want to find out more about what's going on, commentary wise and news wise, I encourage you to go to NevadaNewsandViews.com. Do that and check it out. George, thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it. Good luck, and we'll talk again soon.
George Harris 16:21
Thanks Alan, I appreciate you.
