Former President Donald Trump said Nevada’s top Democrats are weak on crime and damaging to the economy during a Saturday campaign rally in Minden, Nevada for the state’s top Republican candidates, including U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt and gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo.
During a nearly 90-minute speech delivered in front of thousands of cheering supporters at the Minden-Tahoe Airport, Trump blamed Democrats for high inflation and what he described as an “invasion” at the southern border, while also boosting down-ticket Republicans, including secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant and attorney general candidate Sigal Chattah.
“Under Democrat rule, the price of gas in Nevada is up 100 percent,” Trump said. “Two years ago, everything was so good in our country, and now, it's going to pieces. It's falling apart. You now have gasoline, $5 today, $5.54 a gallon.”
The event marked Trump’s second visit this cycle to battleground Nevada, where Republicans are seeking to capitalize on high inflation and dissatisfaction with Democratic President Joe Biden to flip a slew of Democrat-held federal and statewide seats, including a pivotal seat in the U.S. Senate, three House seats and the governor’s office.
Trump said Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak is weak on crime, and called for the use of the death penalty to punish drug dealers, mentioning the opioid and fentanyl crisis.
Along with Lombardo and Laxalt, the event featured Marchant; Chattah; Rep. Mark Amodei, who represents Congressional District 2; Sam Peters, candidate for Congressional District 4; Michele Fiore, candidate for state treasurer; Stavros Anthony, candidate for lieutenant governor; and Andy Matthews, candidate for state controller. Organizers urged Republicans to vote this fall.
The group of candidates, who each delivered roughly five minute-long campaign speeches, addressed key issues for the Republican base, including the economy, crime and immigration. By and large, the group pointed to high inflation and rising gas prices, denouncing economic conditions in Nevada under Democratic control.
“Why we're hurting worse than any state in America — it's because of these policies,” Laxalt said in a speech focused on tying his opponent, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, to Biden.
Lombardo’s remarks centered on the key issues of his campaign, as he called for economic diversification and school choice and said he would “fix our safety.”
“The goal of government is to make criminals’ lives harder, not easier,” he said. “Sisolak has done the opposite, and we're going to fix that … because you're going to have a subject matter expert in the office of the governor.”
In a speech earlier in the event, Marchant highlighted his push for major election changes, including using strictly paper ballots and hand counting results. He also said he convinced a Nevada county to implement a “new prototype for the election system,” referring to Nye County, where the top election official plans to tabulate votes electronically and by hand.
But Marchant, a former assemblyman who has said Nevada has not had a legitimate election in more than a decade, did not hope to dissuade turnout with that message.
“No matter how much rigging they can do of the system, if you show up on November 8, in mass, with such a turnout, it doesn't matter what they do. We overwhelm the system. So it's critical that you get out and vote like you've never voted before,” he said.
Nevada’s top-of-the-ticket races for governor and Senate are both considered “toss-ups.” Recent polling on the races shows the respective Democratic and Republican candidates in tight, almost dead even races.