Nevadans are speaking out about the candidates at the top of the GOP ticket who have proved time and again to be too dangerous for the Silver State. Adam Laxalt, Joe Lombardo, and Jim Marchant are being called out by a reproductive rights advocate and even a former Republican for embracing Trump’s Big Lie and working overtime to cover up their anti-abortion stances.

Read more about the GOP’s out of touch slate below.

Reno Gazette-Journal: Opinion: Nevada’s GOP has become too extreme

Addison Guida

October 15, 2022

Key Points:

• In June, Republicans Joe Lombardo, Adam Laxalt, and Jim Marchant advanced to the general election, and all of these men are too dangerous for Nevada.

• They’re all endorsed by Donald Trump, and to earn his endorsement, they have embraced the Big Lie. Even if you are a skeptic of the 2020 election, I hope you see that these candidates are more concerned with “fixing” an old election than fixing the everyday struggles of our state. 

• As a young Republican, I used to look up to Joe Lombardo. But his campaign for governor shows how he’s changed. He told reporters that he saw no fraud in the 2020 election but refused to acknowledge its legitimacy. He supports a Florida-style “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and brags that he helped deport 10,000 immigrants. This isn’t the sensible man who worked on Sisolak’s transition team in 2018. 

• Adam Laxalt is running for U.S. Senate. It’s hard to know where to start with Laxalt, who spent most of his life in Washington, D.C., and only moved back to Nevada to run for office in 2013. As Trump campaign co-chair, he was responsible for the election challenges that were struck down 25 times by Nevada courts. He is already planning a litigation strategy to contest the 2022 election. 

• QAnon-affiliated Jim Marchant is running for secretary of state. While this office may seem immaterial, he would have the power to enforce election processes. This is especially concerning after he said he would not have certified the 2020 election. He was also part of the alternate slate of electors that conspired to overturn the 2020 election. He plans to change our elections to hand-counted ballots, which would cause smaller counties to miss deadlines for canvassing their results. Someone who was happy to overturn the will of Nevada’s voters should not be in charge of our state’s elections. 

Read the full op-ed here.

Las Vegas Sun: Guest Column: GOP candidates target abortion rights

Caroline Mello Roberson, Southwest regional director of NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada

October 15, 2022

Key Points:

• Although we have strong voter-protected access to abortion in Nevada, we know Republicans running for office right now in the state, like Adam Laxalt and Joe Lombardo, are promoting policies that will severely limit, if not ban access to abortion services here.

• Laxalt, the Republican candidate running for U.S. Senate against Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, is an early pioneer in hiding his views on reproductive freedom in order to confuse and deceive voters. Infamously, while running for governor in 2018, Laxalt said he would “look into” repealing our voter-protected abortion access. Then, Laxalt’s campaign attempted to walk back these comments, claiming his remarks were taken out of context.

• Recently, Laxalt has asserted that he respects our voter-protected abortion access while at the same time saying he would support a ban on abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy.

• Joe Lombardo, the Republican candidate running for governor against Gov. Steve Sisolak, is using the same playbook as Laxalt by speaking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to abortion rights. Lombardo says he would respect Nevadans’ voter-protected abortion access. But, like Laxalt, Lombardo accepted the National Right to Life endorsement and committed to supporting a 13-week abortion ban.

• Lombardo also said he would repeal Sisolak’s executive order protecting abortion seekers in Nevada. In May, Lombardo said he plans to lead as a governor hostile to abortion and would consider forced “waiting periods” for accessing contraception. His campaign has repeatedly tried to walk these statements back, even going so far as to fake a citation from a news outlet.

• Worst of all, Lombardo has funded and directed taxpayer resources to fake health centers — sometimes called “crisis pregnancy centers” — that attempt to lie, threaten and intimidate folks from seeking abortion care.

• What’s clear is that Laxalt and Lombardo are two peas in the same pod — backed by national anti-choice organizations and lawmakers, they’re both shamelessly lying when it comes to abortion rights.

Read the full column here.

###