Indy Elections: Campaign filing is here
Indy Elections is The Nevada Independent’s newsletter devoted to comprehensive and accessible coverage of the 2024 elections, from the race for the White House to the bid to take control of the Legislature.
In today’s edition: Candidate filing has begun, and we share all the need-to-know details from the first day of filing. We also discuss a couple of campaign advertisements and share new poll results. Plus, stick around for a (brief) lightning round download on visits from FLOTUS and VP, endorsements from EMILYs List and the latest Nevada party registration numbers.
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We want to hear from you! Send us your questions, comments, observations, jokes or what you think we should be covering or paying attention to. Email your newsletter editor Tabitha Mueller at [email protected].
Days until:
- Candidate filing closes: 10
- Regular primary Election Day: 98
- Election Day: 245
Candidate filing is officially open
By Tabitha Mueller
The next 10 days could be filled with surprise last-minute campaign changes or a steady stream of filings officializing campaign announcements made months ago. As the Tootsie Pop commercial reminds us: The world may never know — that is, until we reach the end of campaign filing on March 15.
The good news is that staff at The Nevada Independent are tracking all the latest filings and logging them in our 2024 filing live blog, here.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, 313 candidates had filed to run for public office. The usual suspects were among those, including Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who predictably filed her re-election bid for the U.S. Senate, and Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), who filed to run for her congressional seat.
There were also a few down-ballot surprises, including two filings from Republican Senate candidates in Reno-area Senate District 15. Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) endorsed one of the candidates, Mike Ginsburg, who worked at NV Energy. Previously, only Democrats had announced for the Senate District 15 seat represented by Sen. Heidi Seevers-Gansert (R-Reno), who announced in August she would not be running for re-election.
For a rundown of which candidates have already announced intentions to run for the dozens of Nevada Legislature seats on the 2024 ballot, read our announcement tracker here. For more information about local government and other candidate announcements, click to read our earlier tracker here.
Judicial candidates had a separate filing period in January; you can read more about those filings and announcements here.
What we’re reading and writing
Trial for Nevada ‘fake electors’ delayed until January by Eric Neugeboren
Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business” feels fitting here.
Video game composer announces GOP bid for congressional seat held by Susie Lee by Tabitha Mueller
Is Discord the new Twitter?
D.C. Download: Horsford on how the Biden campaign needs to win over Nevada's Black voters by Gabby Birenbaum
Evergreen #WeMatter reminder.
Nevada reps oppose plan to move key postal operations from Reno to Sacramento by Eric Neugeboren
The snow over Donner Pass is no joke. Please don’t delay our Amazon orders (or mail ballots … those are important, too).
Democratic lawmakers hammer Lombardo over ghost gun undercount by Bert Johnson, KUNR Public Radio
Ghost guns, like ghost towns, do exist in Nevada!
Judge allows Nevada voter ID ballot measure to move forward by Tabitha Mueller
The second time’s the charm, right?
Indy Poll Watch
Bloomberg/Morning Consult (Feb 12-18)
- 445 registered voters (Nevada)
- Margin of error: 1 percent
A new poll from Morning Consult reiterated what Emerson College found earlier in the month — former President Donald Trump holds a 6-percentage-point lead over President Joe Biden in Nevada.
When independents are added, the poll found, Trump’s lead grows to 7 points, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. garnering 9 percent.
When you open up the hood, the crosstabs have some strange findings. It’s a small sample size, but the poll finds Biden winning by 7 percentage points with white voters, and Trump beating Biden by a whopping 45 percentage points with Hispanic voters. Neither of those margins were remotely close to true in 2020.
Interestingly, the poll also found that while 45 percent of voters think Biden, 81, is too old to be president, only 10 percent of voters say the same for 77-year-old Trump. And 35 percent of voters say both are too old.
— Gabby Birenbaum
Indy Ad Watch
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action — “Runaway Train” targeting Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) and Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV)
The Koch-backed AFP is out with a trio of 30-second advertisements hammering Rosen, Lee and Horsford for their support of so-called Bidenomics.
The advertisements all start the same way, highlighting statistics about Americans viewing the economy as “struggling,” emphasizing the rising cost of living, including “eggflation,” and directing the blame to Bidenomics. Each campaign advertisement ends with a callout of the specific lawmaker, saying he or she voted for it.
AFP launched similar digital and television advertisements targeting 28 other members of the U.S. Senate and Congress. — Tabitha Mueller
The Lightning Round
✅ EMILYs List endorses nine #nvleg lawmakers for re-election — The political action committee dedicated to electing Democratic, pro-abortion rights candidates endorsed the following nine Democratic legislators, citing the need to protect abortion access at a time when states are looking to ban or restrict the procedures after the end of Roe v. Wade: Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, Sen. Dallas Harris, and Assembly members Daniele Monroe-Moreno, Brittney Miller, Elaine Marzola, Selena La Rue Hatch, Shea Backus and Sandra Jauregui. All the legislators except for La Rue Hatch reside in Las Vegas.
🗳️Democratic, GOP party registration decreased in February — There were nearly 4,000 fewer registered Democrats in Nevada and around 400 fewer registered Republicans in February compared with January, according to the latest active voter data from the secretary of state’s office. Meanwhile, the number of registered nonpartisans grew by nearly 9,000, and they make up one-third of active voters.
🗨️The first lady was in the house — First lady Jill Biden visited Las Vegas on Saturday to stump for her husband President Joe Biden. She started the day by speaking to voters at Las Vegas’ SEIU Local 1107 hall and also spent time with mothers at the restaurant Eat in Downtown Las Vegas. Her visit comes as the president is building up his campaign operations heading into the 2024 election.
🚨Speaking of ramping up campaign operations — Vice President Kamala Harris is returning to the Silver State on Saturday as part of a three-day tour of the Southwest that includes stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Officials have not yet announced the vice president’s itinerary for her Southern Nevada visit.
📬 Aguilar hopes USPS “comes to their senses” on Reno to Sacramento move — After a blistering winter storm hit Northern Nevada last weekend and closed I-80 for three days, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar on Monday continued to voice his opposition against a proposal from the United States Postal Service to move its Reno mail processing operations to Sacramento. The plan, which has drawn bipartisan opposition, is not final but would mean that all Northern Nevada mail would be processed in Sacramento. In his Monday statement, Aguilar said “I can’t fathom how I would explain to my constituents that their mail ballots, or other important mail which could include anything from legal documents to medication, was trapped in the snow in the mountains due to a rushed process and lack of foresight.”
— Tabitha Mueller and Eric Neugeboren
And to ease you into the week, a few “posts” to “X” that caught our eye:
- The internet never forgets.
- Tree branches falling in Vegas and dogs struggling to walk in Reno? Stay safe out there!
- If The Sopranos has taught us anything, it’s don’t mess with the Mob.
We’ll see you next week.