Democratic National Committee members are gathered in the D.C. area this week to elect their party leaders. It’s a critical moment for Democrats, who are locked out of power in the White House and both chambers of Congress, lost all seven swing states in the presidential race and are trying to figure out how to prevent such losses in the future.

Nevada Democrats are arguing that the best way for the DNC to move forward is to further elevate the Silver State. 

But not all of the Nevada representatives at the DNC are on the same page about who’s the best chair candidate to implement that vision.  

The News of the Week: DNC officer races

The two leading candidates for DNC chair are a pair of Midwestern party leaders — Minnesota’s Ken Martin and Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler. 

The two men’s ideas for DNC leadership are fairly similar. Martin, who is the president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, has a lot of loyalty among state party bosses, while Wikler, an impressive fundraiser, counts national leaders such as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) among his supporters.

The voting pool is only 448 DNC members. Beyond the chair, several other positions are up for election. Artie Blanco, a longtime DNC member from Nevada and campaigns director at the AFL-CIO, is running for vice chair in a crowded field, with the backing of several labor leaders and all Democrats in the Nevada delegation.

The election, which is Saturday, comes two weeks into the Trump administration, when the president’s “flood the zone” strategy of signing a flurry of executive orders has prevented Democrats from coming up with a cohesive response. 

For Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), the messaging strategy is simply — if Trump won because of frustrations with the economy, Democrats should consistently be calling him out when his actions are unrelated to the high price of goods. 

“Is he cutting prices?” Cortez Masto said in a press conference. “And if he's not, what's he doing to address that? [Democrats need to] show that he's not cutting prices. Quite frankly, he's not.”

Democrats in Congress and in states were reinvigorated this week by the Trump administration’s Tuesday order to pause all federal assistance — a move Democrats quickly protested as unconstitutional and dangerous and which was struck down by a judge the same day. 

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) talked about the pause on the Senate floor Wednesday, highlighting Reno-based community health center Northern Nevada HOPES, which relies on federal funding and had to implement a hiring freeze Tuesday. Democrats across the country are hoping to use examples from their areas of people affected by Trump’s spending policies.

“The power of the purse [is] not his [to] take away and just decide what he likes, what he doesn’t, what state he likes, what he doesn’t,” Rosen said. “This is clearly our purview, and we need to stand up and fight for that.”

The Nevada Angle: All about 2028

Nevada Democrats restarted their first-in-the-nation push in December, with a memo detailing the state’s case to host the first presidential nominating contest.

None of the chair candidates have made any commitments to particular states about the calendar. But four of Nevada’s six DNC delegates — including Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno — have endorsed Martin. Nevada DNC Committeewoman Samantha Crunkilton, meanwhile, is committed to Wikler, saying she thinks he has the “best chance of building a Democratic Party that wins.” And Blanco is publicly uncommitted.

The majority of the Nevadans endorsing Martin doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll push the state’s first-in-the-nation campaign. Martin also has the endorsement of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the Democratic kingmaker of South Carolina, and several prominent party figures in New Hampshire.

When the DNC set the calendar in 2022, elevating South Carolina at the request of then-President Joe Biden, Democrats had a sitting president. Without an evident party leader, the Nevadans’ first-in-the-nation campaign will be up to a diverse group of DNC stakeholders.

Regardless of who wins, longtime Nevada Democratic spokesperson Molly Forgey said the chair candidates have expressed an interest in reevaluating the calendar.

“We use our voice as often as we can,” Forgey said. “And so we're going to make sure that anyone who has a role in selecting the calendar will be hearing from us.”

The Impact

The calendar fight will be about the direction in which the Democratic Party seeks to go in 2028 and the basic logistics of running a nomination contest. Given the party’s bleeding with Latino and working class voters in particular, Nevada Democrats have a compelling case to make about candidates needing to establish their bona fides with those groups early by campaigning in Nevada. 

But in a governing body as small as the DNC, the clout of the casemakers — for any state — matters a great deal as well. Once the DNC officers are in place, Democrats can move to establish a timeline for setting the calendar — a decision they repeatedly put off in 2021 and 2022. Prospective presidential candidates will hope the DNC moves quickly to know where they should start spending time.

Around the Capitol

💲IRA funds in limbo — With all Inflation Reduction Act funds frozen by a Trump executive order from his first week, Nevada agencies that have obligated grants through the law are stuck in limbo. That includes three huge pots of money that grantees cannot draw from, at least temporarily — the $156 million Solar for All grant, the Clean School Buses program and the Community Change Grant.

The same applies to federal funds that the Governor’s Office of Energy was planning to use imminently, such as a program for home energy rebates for energy efficiency upgrades and energy bill cost-saving measures.

These funds are legally obligated to recipients in Nevada — while a delay is legal, their recission, without congressional approval, would be impoundment, which Congress outlawed in 1974. But the Trump administration wants a court fight about impoundment — and clean energy funds in Nevada will hang in the balance.

Note: If you work for a state agency or nonprofit whose services have been affected by federal funding freezes, reach out. I want to hear from you.

💰Brown’s campaign gifts — Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown, who lost a 1.5-percentage-point race to Rosen in November, doled out more than $500,000 to Republican-aligned organizations from his campaign account after the election. That included $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, $100,000 to a PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, $40,000 to Icons Women Organization, which campaigns against trans women participating in sports, and more than $26,000 for anti-abortion group Nevada Right to Life.

🏥CCM vs. RFK Jr. — In a battle of political figures known by three initials, Cortez Masto questioned Health and Human Service nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his Senate hearing Wednesday. Cortez Masto asked if federal law protects a patient’s right to emergency care in the event of a heart attack, to which Kennedy agreed. She then asked if that same law — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, currently at the center of a legal dispute in Idaho over abortion — applies in the case of a pregnant woman requiring an emergency abortion in the case of an incomplete miscarriage.

Kennedy responded, “I don’t know.”

Cortez Masto also informed Kennedy that his department, if he is confirmed, has investigatory power to ensure laws are being enforced.

“It’s important that you understand their impact and don’t play politics with the patient presenting at the ER based on a position that this administration has taken,” Cortez Masto said. 

After the hearing, she announced she would not be voting for Kennedy.

What I’m Reading

Las Vegas Sun: New Trump memo to end ‘confusion’ on funding freeze still needs ‘clarity,’ says Nevada AG Aaron Ford

The era of Democratic AGs suing Trump has commenced.

The Nevada Independent: Republicans take voter registration lead in Nevada for first time since 2007

It took 18 years, but Republicans got the voter registration lead back.

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Democrats worry about future of unused COVID-19 stimulus funding

The Trump administration’s federal funding freeze continues to leave everyone confused.

Notable and Quotable

“I think everybody from the states — from my colleagues to our governors to county commissioners — if you're seeing an impact by this administration that's going to have a devastating impact on the people in your state, you’ve got to speak up and you’ve got to push back.”

— Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), on if the actions of the Trump administration could affect Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s re-election chances

Vote of the Week

PN11-3 — On the Nomination: Confirmation: Douglas Burgum, of North Dakota, to be Secretary of the Interior

This was the nomination vote for one of the most important Cabinet officials for Nevada — the secretary of the interior, who manages more than 80 percent of the land in Nevada.

CORTEZ MASTO: Yes

ROSEN: Yes