Joe Lombardo, Nevada’s Republican governor, is doing just about everything he can to stop Democrats from gaining the ability to sharply curtail his power this November.
Everything, except bear-hugging former President Donald J. Trump.
For Democrats, veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the State Legislature are tantalizingly close, raising the stakes of the election far beyond just the presidential and U.S. Senate contests. The party is defending a 28-seat supermajority in the State Assembly and needs to flip just one seat in the State Senate to achieve a supermajority there, too.
To stop them, Mr. Lombardo has largely operated outside the state Republican Party, which is led by Michael McDonald, a top Trump ally. A web of independent political action committees connected to the governor has raised millions and is churning out digital ads while also funneling money directly to candidates. A nonprofit set up to raise money for his inauguration two years ago that does not have to disclose its donors has also been repurposed, and is making ads for critical legislative races.
Political observers and supporters of Mr. Lombardo say his efforts are filling a void left by a state party in dire financial straits and distracted by legal issues related to Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss in Nevada four years ago.
“Lombardo is the first governor we’ve had who has been super engaged in this process,” said Robin Titus, the Republican minority leader of the Nevada State Senate who previously served about a decade in the State Assembly. “You see how badly he wants this. We’re really grateful for his help.”
As he pours support down the ballot, the governor has largely steered clear of Mr. Trump, whom he endorsed for president early this year. Until Thursday evening, he had not appeared at a Trump rally or campaigned at an event under Mr. Trump’s banner all cycle. This has irked some Nevada Republicans, according to three of the former president’s close allies in the state, who suggest he should have been more focused on electing Mr. Trump, which would in turn lift the candidates he is trying to aid. Two of the people who expressed frustrations spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive topic in Nevada’s political circles.
“I have received numerous complaints about the governor’s absence from the campaign trail,” Sigal Chattah, a Republican national committeewoman representing Nevada, said in a recent interview. Ms. Chattah has previously publicly criticized Mr. Lombardo for signing a bill related to health care for transgender people.
Amy Tarkanian, a former chairwoman of Nevada’s Republican Party, and several other elected officials interviewed for this story, said Mr. Lombardo’s approach is reflective of political reality. While polls show the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Trump is a dead heat, he is trying to help Republicans win moderates and independents in places where Mr. Trump and his polarizing politics could hurt more than help.
And to govern over the past two years, Mr. Lombardo has had to navigate a Democratic-controlled Legislature, work closely with a Democratic secretary of state and attorney general, and forge relationships with the state’s mostly Democratic congressional delegation.
“I think he wants the Republican base to know that he’s got their back, but he’s also going to have the entire state’s back,” said Ms. Tarkanian, who opposes Mr. Trump.
Elizabeth Ray, Mr. Lombardo’s spokeswoman, said in a statement that he “sought to identify and support candidates who share his desire to bring better education, greater public safety, a more affordable cost of living, and more housing opportunity to Nevada.” In response to internal criticism, she reiterated his support for Mr. Trump, pointing to his endorsement along with a guest essay he wrote for The New York Times in June about why Nevadans were fed up with the policies of President Biden.
On Thursday afternoon, the governor made a rare appearance at Mr. Trump’s rally in Henderson, Nev.
“The Democrats are trying to make a supermajority so I have no ability to do my job as your governor,” Mr. Lombardo told the crowd, after slamming Ms. Harris and promoting Mr. Trump.
“When you vote for Trump,” he added, “look all the way at the bottom of the ballot and make sure you vote for every one of those individual Republicans.”
During the last legislative session, Mr. Lombardo vetoed 75 bills, which was the most in a single session in the state’s history. Democratic candidates have sought to woo voters in part by talking up the policies that they would have enacted otherwise — like universal breakfast and lunch programs for children in public schools, and a measure that would have blocked corporations from owning more than 1,000 units of housing.
“Things like school lunches for kids,” said Nicole Cannizzaro, majority leader of the State Senate. “Things that ensure people can live and work and raise a family. That’s what a supermajority would do.”
These down-ballot races have also been animated by issues like crime, the economy and rising rental prices — and less so by Mr. Trump himself, especially in places where Republicans are trying to hang on to competitive seats or topple Democratic incumbents.
David Brog, who is running against Assemblywoman Shea Backus in the West Las Vegas district she won by 800 votes in 2022, said he supports Mr. Trump but has not attended one of his rallies — because it would take him away from knocking on doors.
Like many of the other Republican candidates trying to block and break Democratic supermajorities, Mr. Brog is running on a promise to protect Nevada from leftists trying to turn the state into California.
“Some of them might vote for me despite the fact they are not voting for Trump,” Mr. Brog, who has highlighted Mr. Lombardo’s endorsement of him on social media, said of the voters he is seeking.
Mr. Lombardo, the former sheriff of Clark County, was elected governor in 2022 with Mr. Trump’s backing, defeating an incumbent Democrat by focusing on the economy, crime and education. In January, just before the Nevada caucuses, he endorsed the former president’s re-election bid.
Yet while Mr. Lombardo raised questions about 2020, he did not embrace Mr. Trump’s stolen election lie, something that separated him from other Republicans candidates in 2022 who made election denial part of their platform. He has distanced himself from the six Nevadans who were accused in the “fake elector” scheme to falsely award the state’s electoral votes to Mr. Trump, a group that includes Mr. McDonald, who is a friend.
His views have put him at odds with a state party tightly aligned with Mr. Trump and his false claims of voter fraud. The Republican Party, meanwhile, is leading an aggressive legal effort across the battleground states as Mr. Trump continues to fixate on his 2020 defeat. Governors who resisted Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the results in their states came under enormous pressure.
Ms. Chattah, the R.N.C. member who previously ran unsuccessfully for attorney general, said she was wary of what she called Mr. Lombardo’s “lack of involvement in election integrity” going into Election Day. For example, she said, he did not publicly support the R.N.C.’s recent court fight to limit the counting of certain mail ballots, which failed.
Bradley Schrager, a top election lawyer for Democrats in Nevada, suggested that Mr. Lombardo was trying to balance pleasing the Republican base on this issue with common sense, facts and the law.
Mr. Lombardo is supportive of a Nevada ballot measure that would require voter ID, and has said he wants a law “requiring mail-in ballots to be received by 5 p.m. on Election Day.” He vetoed a Democratic-led bill that would have stiffened penalties for creating a false slate of presidential electors or serving as one, but signed a bill last year that made harassing or intimidating election workers a felony.
“Apart from his voter ID obsession, Lombardo’s positions on Nevada’s elections place him among other mainly rational human beings,” Mr. Schrager said.
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