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Enthusiastic Trump supporters not quite as enthusiastic about Nevada's midterm election

Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
Election 2018
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Supporters of Donald Trump — many of them clad in red Make America Great Again hats or swathed in the stripes of the American flag — gave rave reviews of the president’s first two years in office while waiting in line for his Thursday rally.

But their enthusiasm for the candidates running for Nevada’s top offices this year was more muted.

More than a dozen Trump supporters, in interviews with The Nevada Independent before the president’s rally, shared their thoughts on the upcoming November election, including some who had a keen interest in the outcomes of the highly contested U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races, and others who had barely any knowledge of the midterm election at all. Their comments hint at the gap between the president’s tried-and-true supporters, many of whom were motivated to turn out in 2016 specifically because of Trump, and the traditional Republican Party, which needs the votes of the president’s supporters in 2018, and just how wide it might be.

Trump was in Las Vegas on Thursday to help bridge any divide and ensure that his supporters turn out, reminding them at multiple points during the rally that early voting starts Oct. 20.

“Whether it’s from Vegas to Reno to Carson City, we need every Nevada patriot to go out to vote,” Trump told the crowd.

Attorney General Adam Laxalt, businessman Danny Tarkanian and former Rep. Cresent Hardy all lavished praise on the president before a crowd of thousands during a series of pre-rally speeches. U.S. Sen. Dean Heller — locked in a tight re-election bid that could determine which party controls the Senate and, by extension, whether Trump is able to continue pushing his agenda through Congress — got main billing, delivering his remarks in the middle of the president’s speech.

Supporters cheer while President Donald J. Trump, speaks during a political rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. (Jeff Scheid-Nevada Independent)

At the rally, Trump said that he has had “no better friend in Congress” than Heller and even professed his love for the Republican senator, but their relationship wasn’t always so close. During the 2016 campaign, Heller declared that he was 99 percent against Trump.

“Now I have to say this — we started out, we weren’t friends. I didn’t like him, he didn’t like me,” Trump said at the rally. “And as we fought and fought and fought believe it or not we started to respect each other then we started to like each other then we started to love each other.”

But Trump’s love for Heller hasn’t entirely trickled down to his supporters, some of whom criticized the Republican senator as “wishy washy,” too much of a politician or a “RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only. Still, many of them said that they would vote for him in November because of the president’s support.

Jeanne Marie, a 62-year-old nurse donning a camouflage Make America Great Again Hat, said she was “a little leery” about Heller’s “past performance,” singling out health care as an issue she felt he hadn’t been strong on. But Trump’s support for Heller weighs heavily on her views about the senator, she said.

“I think he's a bit wishy washy in what he says he's going to do and what he actually does,” said Marie, who added that she voted for Heller in 2012. “But if President Trump supports him I'm going to tend to support him, too.”

Her friend, Filomena McGuigan, had a more positive view of Heller.

“I think he has to say one thing in order to appease everybody and then I think he thinks it through and decides for himself,” the 59-year-old veteran and nurse’s aide said. “And, for the most part, I believe with all my heart that he's trying to do the right thing.”

David Dewoody, a 41-year-old who works in ministry, said that Heller needs to “get behind” Trump and support him more, calling the senator “kind of a RINO Republican.” Forrest Morton, a retired surveyor, said that Heller and other Nevada politicians “have that air about them that Trump didn’t have” but that he would still vote for the Republican senator.

“You've got to understand he's a politician. He's got a PR company that's running ads that are deceptive,” the 68-year-old Morton said. “But the president has to have control of the House and the Senate.”

Tanya Sams Jones, 51, said that she’s seen the negative ads that call Heller “Senator Spineless,” referring to his wavering position on whether to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last summer, but that she will vote for whoever the president endorses.

“I know they call him ‘spineless’ and stuff like that but you know, right now, as far as getting things together and stuff in the Congress and stuff, we need someone who's going to help the president,” said Sams, who attended the rally with her son. “I'm for supporting the president.”

Irene Illanas, 68, left, a retired school teacher, and Jose Varela, 75, stands in line waiting for President Donald J.Trump to speak during a political rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018. (Jeff Scheid-Nevada Independent)

Irene Illanes, a 68-year-old retired high school teacher, said she actually appreciates that Heller took his time to warm up to Trump.

“Sometimes there’s more credit when the person, Trump wins them over, than when they are sold out to whomever or whatever,” said Illanes, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico in 1991. “So it took him awhile to actually support him wholeheartedly, but I believe in him. I believe that he's going to do a good job.”

One Trump supporter said she was thankful that Trump intervened in the primary between Heller and Tarkanian, who was running a primary challenge against Heller for the U.S. Senate, until Trump intervened in March and encouraged him to run for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District instead.

“Oh dear. That would’ve been a dilemma” said Adele Maurer, 62, asked which of the two she would’ve supported in the primary. “But Trump stepped in and kind of resolved that.”

Only some of the Trump supporters interviewed knew about Tarkanian in any detail, even though he was one of the president’s most outspoken supporters in Nevada during the 2016 election. But those who did were generally fairly positive about him.

Marie, the nurse, said that she is “sold” on Tarkanian.

“I think he's been badly put down,” said Marie, who voted for Tarkanian for Congress in 2016. “I don't think that's the way that he is. I think he's a good man.”

But Morton, the retired surveyor, said that he didn’t vote for Tarkanian last year because “there were some financial issues,” apparently referring to some of the attacks levied against Tarkanian about his prior business dealings. Asked what Tarkanian has to do to earn his vote this year, Morton said, “I have no idea.”

Trump supporters were also generally less familiar with Laxalt than Heller even though his grandfather, Paul Laxalt, was a U.S. senator and governor of Nevada.

McGuigan, the veteran, said she knew that Laxalt’s “dad, or somebody in his family, was also in politics and had an impeccable reputation.” After she was told about Paul Laxalt, she added that she feels better that he has a “grandfather of integrity.”

“In any event [Paul Laxalt] had an impeccable record, and they're all talking about how it's nepotistic if you vote for [Adam Laxalt],” McGuigan said. “Really? How? I'm listening to what the man is saying.”

Asked whether she was going to vote for Laxalt, Sams Jones said that she was “looking at him” but didn’t really know much about him. She wouldn’t, however, be voting for Sisolak, she said.

“Sisolak, I've seen some of his stuff and heard — and my husband he's really into more so than me, politics — and he talks about it and I looked it up, so I don't care for him,” Sams Jones said.

Illanes, the retired high school teacher, said that she just started hearing about Laxalt in the last eight months and that she needs to do more research, particularly into criticisms about Laxalt’s ties to pharmaceutical companies.

“I have my questions about him but that's fine, you know,” Illanes said. “I'm going to do more research into the pharmaceutical aspect that the Democrats are blaming him for accepting money from the lobbyists.”

One lingering question is the impact that nonpartisan gubernatorial candidate Ryan Bundy, the son of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy who led an armed standoff against federal agents in 2014, will have on Laxalt’s ability to cinch the victory in the gubernatorial race. Before Laxalt spoke to them at the rally, Bundy was out Thursday afternoon shaking hands with Trump supporters and handing out campaign literature.

“Oh Ryan — that’s you?” McGuigan asked after Bundy approached her and handed her a flyer in the middle of an interview with a reporter. “Jesus. Hi. I knew people that went to your standoff. Wow, and you're running for governor? How come I didn't hear this before now?”

After a brief conversation with Bundy and he had moved down the line, McGuigan seemed a little shocked, saying, “That kind of threw me for a loop.” But she also expressed concern that a man without prior political experience could be governor.

“I don't think that was enough exposure to government corruption to give you a ticket to the governor's mansion,” McGuigan said. “I admire the guy for trying. I'm not a closed-minded individual. So I will go home and I will research it.”

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