Adam Laxalt expects a sell-out event with 2,000 attendees at Saturday’s annual Basque Fry in Gardnerville with the headliner Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
It’s the first visit from DeSantis to Nevada since announcing his run. It’s also the first from the growing field of Republican candidates, who are focusing on the other early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Nevada’s presidential-preference primary, which replaces the previous caucus format, is set for Feb. 6. This change happened when then-Gov. Steve Sisolak signed a bill in 2021 moving up the date and switching to a traditional primary system. The Nevada Republican Party is suing to change back. The main primary will still be in June 2024.
According to an NBC News report, only about 1% of ad spending in the GOP primary — $557,000 out of $40.3 million — has targeted Nevada.
But Laxalt — former Nevada attorney general and long-time friend of DeSantis after they roomed together at Naval Justice School — sees the Basque Fry as an important event in the governor’s race for the White House.
Below is an edited version of our 10-minute phone call Wednesday.
• RGJ: What does Gov. DeSantis need to happen at the Basque Fry for it to be considered a success for his campaign?
• Laxalt: I think what he needs is already going to happen. We’re gonna sell this thing out. It’s gonna be a massive event, larger than the one last year.
For every person there, it will be the first time they’ve heard directly from Ron DeSantis as a presidential candidate in Nevada. Our voters are looking for someone that can actually have a set of policies and execute on them, that can fight back against a lot of the things that our voters are worried about coming out of the left, that are transforming our country and our culture. And he’s the only governor that has consistently found ways to fight back against those trends and to win.
• RGJ: Gov. DeSantis has said the national mainstream media doesn’t portray him accurately. What do you think they get wrong?
• Laxalt: I think the first massive example was during COVID. Gov. DeSantis had his own team and they evaluated the science, and they felt that a lot of the lockdown measures were not the right response. He stood up against that, and the media mercilessly attacked him. They said he was the one that had incorrect facts and he was the one that was endangering children.
I think he’s been proven right on every single thing he took a stand on, while we’ve seen a lot of reversals out of the federal government over the last many months.
There’s a supposed book ban going on right now. There’s no book ban going on, as he explained. What he found was sexually explicit content in elementary schools, and no one is for that. The American public doesn’t want that in their schools, but the media pretends there’s some broad book ban that’s ideologically driven.
• RGJ: Donald Trump will likely be his main competition in the primary. What is a significant difference between the two that Nevada’s Republican voters should care about for the primary?
• Laxalt: The main thing he brings to the table is a massive record of success against woke-ism.
How many Republican governors in the past have taken on a big corporation and then the media comes in and everyone piles on so they just back off? Gov. DeSantis has not backed off on the Disney fight. And I think our voters are looking for someone that can stand up for them.
There’s a block of voters that still believe Trump has his fastball, but there’s a larger block of voters that think we need someone new.
People are moving to Florida. (A U.S. Census report shows Florida as highest for domestic migration.) It’s for a reason — because they simply want freedom and they want the ability to be left alone and they want a lot of the values that we cherish here in Nevada.
His record in Florida has shown that if his policies are done throughout the country, we’ll all be more free and not have the federal government telling us how to live our lives. I think that’s gonna resonate greatly with our voters.
• RGJ: You’d mentioned the governor’s fight against Disney. Small-government conservatives have expressed concerns that it doesn’t fit with their philosophy to have the government go on the offensive against private corporations that aren’t aligned politically with those in power. How would Gov. DeSantis appeal to those who worry about using government power against opponents?
• Laxalt: I can tell you that our voters want someone that is willing to fight this fight, so that is not really a concern. Nothing happened with Disney other than they had their special privileges removed. That’s not the story that’s told, but that’s exactly what happened.
They are the only corporation in America that had their own districts and their own board, and they got their own governance and they got to manage a large piece of Florida all by themselves. He simply put them back to where all the other corporations are in Florida. As long as voters know that, then there’s zero opposition to that.
Gardnerville Basque Fry event details
The Basque Fry will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Corley Ranch in Gardnerville. Music, food and activities for kids are planned. Adult tickets: $25 for general admission or $1,000 for private dining and a meet & greet with Republican leaders.
In addition to DeSantis, other speakers on the bill include Dana Loesch, a radio and TV host and former National Rifle Association spokesperson; Dave Rubin, a political commentator and host of The Rubin Report talk show; and Nevada-based speakers Gov. Joe Lombardo, Rep. Mark Amodei, Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony and Laxalt.
For details on how to get tickets, visit morninginnevadapac.org.
Mark Robison covers local government for the Reno Gazette-Journal. His wages are 100% funded by donations and grants; his journalism is done in the public good and always free for all to read. If you’d like to see more stories like this one, please consider donating at RGJ.com/donate.
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