(Danny Tarkanian) – There are many reasons for the disappointing performance by the Republican Party this past election. Below, I discuss the ones I think were most responsible.
Flakes to Trump:
Since I have been involved in politics, almost 20 years, one Republican after another has run in the primary as a steadfast conservative but once elected, governed as a moderate to liberal. This has infuriated the Republican base.
During this same time, Democrats, with the help of the liberal media, have branded any Republican they feared as an out of touch extremists. Remember the outlandish attacks against George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, hardly extreme candidates. Instead of standing strong and fighting back, most of these politicians tried to appease the media by moving further to the left. This infuriated the base even more.
Then came Trump. He articulated the American First agenda and proudly and defiantly defended its conservative principles. He didn’t back down to anyone. For the first time in a long time, a Republican fought back. He was rude, mean, and abrasive, but people forgave him or even liked his behavior believing it was necessary in the war against liberalism.
The left, and the Washington DC establishment, felt threatened by Trump and did everything they could to derail him. The media created one false story after another about him. They mistakenly thought Trump would back down as previous Republicans had. When that didn’t work, they marginalized and demeaned anyone who supported him.
As a result, when the Billy Bush tape came out during the 2016 elections, most Republican candidates repudiated Trump hoping to salvage their own political careers. The few that remained supportive were demonized and ridiculed. Fake stories were written about them.
Sig Rogich, a top Republican political consultant, and family friend, pleaded with me to repudiate Trump. He said my political career was over if I didn’t, but there was no way I was going to do this. Trump clearly was going to be a better president than Clinton no matter what he had said privately years before. I would have gone against everything my father stood for if I disavowed Trump for personal gain.
Mini Me Trumps:
Then the unthinkable happened, Trump won! Everyone started jumping on his bandwagon. Political opportunists, desperately wanting the power of public office, emulated Trump’s behavior. Each tried to out Trump the other by being more brash and obnoxious.
Many in the Republican Party embraced this conduct, heaping praise upon them. Most of these candidates won contested primaries but few, if any, won general election races that were not held in a red district or state.
In Nevada, two of these candidates were Michele Fiore and Sigal Chattah. Fiore ran for State Treasurer even though she had a history of mishandling money and failing to pay taxes. Chattah ran for Attorney General promising to throw in jail anyone who disagreed with her. Both proudly claimed to be the female version of Trump, brash, obnoxious, and rude. See for yourself.
However, in a state like Nevada, whose largest registration of voters is 3rd party, these candidates were soundly defeated.
DeSantis shows how it is Done:
In Florida, Governor DeSantis enthusiastically supported and adopted Trump’s American First policies. The left and the liberal media went after him as they did with Trump. They marginalized his accomplishments and demonized and lied about his actions. As with Trump, DeSantis refused to back down or apologize. However, DeSantis didn’t viciously attack his opponents, no demeaning nicknames, no personal assaults. Rather, he kept the public focused on his tremendous accomplishments.
DeSantis carried this swing state by 20 points and won heavily Democratic Miami Dade County by double digits.
Floridians showed that Trump’s America First policies implemented by a charismatic statesman who doesn’t back down is a tough candidate to beat.
Power over County:
As the saying goes, power corrupts. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy raised hundreds of millions of dollars from donors promising to use that money to take control of the Senate and House. Instead, both spent millions protecting incumbent Republicans with horrible conservative records against better challengers. McConnell and McCarthy did this because these incumbents promised to vote for them in leadership positions. Protecting their power was more important than the success of the Republican Party and the betterment of our Country.
Democrats Fundraising Machine:
For the past several elections, Democrats have raised far more money than Republicans, and unfortunately, money wins races. At least as early as 2016, the Democrats started a nation-wide fundraising mechanism called “ACT BLUE” whereby individual candidates in important races raised millions of dollars from small dollar donors. These candidates didn’t need to spend time fundraising. ACT BLUE provided it!
The Republican Party has tried to copy this technique with a program called WIN RED but it is not nearly as effective. In the key races in 2022, almost every Democrat had a substantial money advantage over their Republican opponent. In many races it made the difference even with great candidates. See Nevada Senate and Adam Laxalt.
Election Fraud as a Campaign Issue:
Under the guise of COVID, states controlled by Democrats passed election laws eliminating important safeguards for fair elections. In Nevada, the Democrat controlled legislature passed laws requiring universal mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting.
In Clark County, the Registrar of Voters, lowered the signature verification level to the lowest level recommended by the software manufacturer, allowing many ballots with questionable signatures to be counted. Victor Joeks, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal, tested the legitimacy of this process. In the 2020 elections, nine voters submitted Joeks’ signature on their ballots. The Clark County elections department accepted eight of them. This election, 11 voters submitted Joeks’ signature on their ballot. Six were accepted. As Joeks’ tests prove, the signature verification process used in Clark County does not identify even half of the fraudulent signatures submitted.
Ballot harvesting was a felony in Nevada until the Democrat legislature made it legal in 2020. The Deputy Secretary for Elections told me that there is no way they can assure the integrity of the ballots received thru ballot harvesting.
Instead of campaigning on the real problems with the altered election laws, too many Republicans claimed they had evidence of voter fraud when they clearly didn’t. In Nevada, on two separate occasions, Republican National Committeeman, Jim DeGraffenreid, told the Douglas County Central Committee that he had proof that over 2,000 people who had died voted in the 2020 election. When asked to provide the names of the people who died and who voted, he refused, falsely claiming he couldn’t because of a court order.
The Republican Party loses all credibility when it peddles false claims of voter fraud. In a year when the Republicans were projected to win independents by a large margin, they actually lost independents in Nevada. Many were turned off by unproven claims of voter fraud. Republican candidates would have been better served attacking the real problems with the changes made to the election system.
Big Tent Deflated:
Candidates can receive more votes than their opponent by either getting more of their supporters to vote than their opponent or having more supporters than their opponent. The latter is called the Big Tent theory.
In several states, the Republican Party intentionally and willfully deflated its tent. In Arizona for example, the GOP candidate for Governor told a crowd that if they were a John McCain supporter they should leave. Nevada’s GOP went further. They banished over 100 of the top GOP activists from the party because they did not support state party chair, Michael McDonald. With a deflated tent the Nevada Republican Party lost big-time.
Reid Machine:
In 2010, when Harry Reid was running for re-election, he organized and funded a grassroots organization called the Reid Machine. The Reid Machine raised money, registered voters, identified their supporters and got their supporters to vote. For the past 12 years, the top Republican elected officials have failed to put a similar program in place and the State GOP has proven, inept at best, in doing the same.