Real estate developer and former state senator Jesse Haw is the best-funded GOP nominee after putting his own money into the race. In his campaign, Marchant has pledged to review what he calls the “fraudulent electoral system” in Nevada. He said he would not have certified President Joe Biden’s victory by more than 33,500 votes if he had been secretary of state in 2020. He has spoken publicly about a “deep state fraud” that he claims has installed inappropriate candidates for power for years. And almost two years ago, he unsuccessfully sued for a re-vote after losing by about 16,000 votes to Democrat Steve Horsford in the 4th District of the state. Marchant has also formed a coalition of so-called “America First Constitutional Conservative” candidates. Their goals include ending most mail-order voting, extending voter identification, and promoting “aggressive” voter list clearance. And, more recently, Marchant has pressured local governments to abandon the use of ballot machines. He wants to get back to counting the ballots by hand – a move that experts say will cause mistakes and chaos in future elections. (As we wrote recently, Commissioners in Nye County, Nevada, endorsed Marchant’s idea and voted 5-0 to nominate county elected official Sandra “Sam” Merlino to leave the machines in this year’s election. Controversy has pushed Merlino, a Republican, to increase her retirement date so she is not in power to oversee the November election.) Marchant did not respond to multiple interview requests from CNN. His rise in recent months – and his attempt to elect like-minded election leaders elsewhere – has sounded the alarm among national suffrage activists. “Marchand’s rhetoric and background make it clear he is a dangerous extremist who would work to undermine democratic elections,” said Nick Peniman, chief executive of the Issue One Action election monitoring team. “Elections should be conducted by dedicated civil servants who want to hold free and fair elections, not fraudulent party activists who would overthrow the will of the people.”
Swing state
Whoever becomes Nevada’s new Secretary of State will oversee the electoral process in one of the country’s most important presidential states. The margins for victory have narrowed on this battlefield in recent years. Biden won Silver State by just over 2 percentage points in 2020, after winning more than 6 points on the Obama-Maiden ticket there in 2012. The state is a top priority for Republicans this year as they try to take control of the U.S. Senate. Former President Donald Trump backs former Attorney General Adam Laxalt in his fight for Republican anointing. Laxalt, the son of a powerful Nevada political family, served as Trump’s co-president in Nevada in the last presidential election. The GOP Senate nominee will face Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto for the first time in the fall. Trump had not backed the nominee for secretary of state at the time of writing, although Marchant emphasized the former president’s support for his failed 2020 congressional nomination. The current Secretary of State and the only Republican official in the state, Barbara Cegavske, has a limited tenure. He has repeatedly defended the integrity of the 2020 election amid Republican outrage over the results – and has been punished by the Nevada GOP for it. Whoever wins the GOP nomination for secretary of state on Tuesday will face Las Vegas lawyer Sisco Aguilar, who has no rival in the Democratic primary.
The “First Plate of America”
So far, the so-called “America First” promoted by Marchant has had mixed results. The group-backed foreign ministerial candidates lost the recent primaries in Idaho, California and Georgia. But others in the America First group are running in the November general election. They include the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, state senator Doug Mastriano, a leading voice in promoting Trump’s baseless allegations of electoral fraud in Keystone State. In Pennsylvania, the governor appoints the foreign minister. And last week, Audrey Trujillo – another member of the America First Coalition and a critic of the vote counters – was formally nominated for the GOP Foreign Minister in New Mexico. Trujillo, who ran without a rival, will face incumbent Democrat Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Trujillo is likely to face a difficult rise: Oliver won her first full term in office in 2018 by 20 points.
You must read
This story is from CNN’s Dan Merica about the GOP candidates tied up on January 6 and winning their primary. CNN’s Adam Wollner’s analysis of former Trump administration officials who have seen success in the polls so far this year. This piece from NBC on an eight-digit campaign to promote Democratic nominees for secretary of state in several key states – another sign of the high stakes of these downward confrontations in the current political environment.
