Adam Laxalt Talks Building Momentum in the Nevada Senate Race

CLAY: Adam Laxalt joins us now. He is running for Senate there. We appreciate all you listening in Las Vegas and Reno. And soon to be, I believe, Senator, I want to hit you with a couple of polls. I’m sure you guys get polls all the time.

But these both came out yesterday, Insider Advantage has you with a three-point lead. The Trafalgar Group has you with a four-point lead. What are you seeing on the ground? Do you believe that those polls are accurate? Do you think you’re gonna flip this seat away from the Democrats?

LAXALT: Yeah, it’s been an incredible week. Had five polls that have had us ahead in this week — or in this race. That’s after a summer which all your Nevada listeners will be well aware of being absolutely pounded by negative ads from — all being funded from New York and California. And, nonetheless, the voters clearly aren’t buying it.

They aren’t buying that I’m responsible for high gas prices, which is one of the ads that ran here for a few months, and they aren’t buying her election year, you know, makeup where she’s trying to pretend like she’s been standing for Nevada when no one can think of a single important time that she stood with Nevada over Washington, D.C., over what’s gone — what’s happened to our country over the last few years, including, of course, just three weeks ago with the Inflation Reduction Act.

She wasn’t even up for debate, she was a guaranteed vote. A vote that certainly is leading to more inflation in a city that is already 16% inflation. We’re the epicenter. And so all you hear on the ground is people are fed up, they want change, they’re tired of our current leadership, which in our state is all Democrats, and obviously nationally it’s Democrats as well.

BUCK: Adam, is your opponent, Cortez Masto, taking a page from the Fetterman playbook in effectively trying to just let the media do her work for her on the campaign trail, duck away from whether it’s facing you on a debate stage or facing, you know, voters that you’re pointing out, I mean, very understandably in Nevada and across the country are very concerned right now.

Is she ducking away? I mean, how is she trying to deal with the realities of what her party is doing these days?

LAXALT: Well, let’s say most importantly she’s ducked away from every fight we’ve needed her to be involved in over the last five, six years. And so she cuts a very, very low profile. She’s hoping she can buy this race with TV. (Loss of audio) very, very little media.

They launched out a couple of very, very liberal dates the day after my primary. We have subsequently accepted it to right down the line, very centrist accepted by debate, she will not accept those debates. And so we’re hoping she still will.

There’s no question she needs the debate more than we do because in the end of the day she’s down. They’ve thrown their, you know, two or three biggest punches, and we feel like now that voters are fully engaged, our side — I’m finally up on TV — our side is finally, you know, helping make the case on the outside. And it’s not just a one-way street like we faced all summer long —

BUCK: Adam, I just want to follow up on this. Where are you really different? I mean, in terms of how you will vote and how that will represent the people of Nevada differently in D.C. as a United States Senator, where are the core differences between you and Cortez Masto?

LAXALT: Well, we just started a border ad yesterday. Nothing illustrates our core differences more than the border. I visited the border, as the voters will see in the ad. My opponent says there’s no such thing as an open border, it’s misinformation.

So, you know, this is a huge issue. I believe as a party we shouldn’t do a single thing coming out of hopefully winning two houses without forcing Joe Biden to secure this border. Again, my opponent doesn’t even acknowledge that we have an open border.

You know, from a law enforcement perspective, law enforcement across the state, 20,000-plus badges supported me. These are people that supported her in her race in ’16 because they know that I stood with her when I was attorney general, they know that I stood with them when the BLM riots happened.

And the bottom line is these Democrats, while they’re trying to do a lot of election-year makeup work on defunding the police and, you know, all this anti-cop rhetoric, the damage is done, cops understand that the Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies does not support them and I think our voters understand these policies have made our communities far less safe.

You know, the other major area, of course, is in just the economic agenda. She has been a 100 percent reliable vote for all of the spending bills, for all of the attacks on energy, and all of these things have made Las Vegas the epicenter of inflation.

We have $5 and up gas. In fact, we’re behind only California and Hawaii. We’re a couple dollars more than every other battleground state. So, all these things are combining for a massive change election.

You know, that said, you know, as I’m sure you’re reporting on a lot of these races the Democrats have unlimited money. And they’re spending whatever it takes to try to buy these races. We certainly need support across the state and all over the country to try to match this progressive spend, mostly from California and New York.

They’re trying to buy these races. They’re deceiving voters with false messages. But when all is said and done, we feel confident we’re gonna win this race.

CLAY: We’re talking to Adam Laxalt, Nevada, is the Senate battleground that he is trying to win up three and up four in the two most recent polls that are up at Real Clear Politics. Obviously things breaking your way.

And it seems, Adam, like a decent percentage of that, a lot of Hispanic voters are rallying around the message that you are selling. Are you seeing that on the ground? Why do you think in particular Hispanic voters are breaking in your direction maybe in ways that they haven’t broken for a Republican in the past?

LAXALT: Yeah, we started Latinos for Laxalt in February. We’ve been working at this the entire year. We’ve got incredible coalitions. You know, we’ve got Spanish ads, radio, TV, and we’ve made this a huge priority.

And the Democrats, of course, have gone — have done a lot of the work for us by all of their failing policies. And so I think what happened during covid with these horrific shutdowns is that Hispanic small businesses were shut down at all-time highs.

You had schools shut down a lot longer than they needed to be, and so you had, say, a working Hispanic mom, single mom trying to juggle Zoom schools and still put food on the table. And I think they got really, really fed up.

They also got treated to seeing what their kids are being taught in schools. These people moved to Las Vegas ’cause they believe in the American dream. They believe, as has been proven time and again in our state, that if you work hard, you can make an honest wage, you can provide opportunity for your family and have a real shot at the American dream.

They don’t support this far-left idea that America is a terrible place and we’re irredeemable. And so, you know, all these things that combine for the Hispanic community to finally wake up and understand, these Democrats will say whatever it takes to win elections.

But the bottom line is their values don’t match up with the Hispanic community. They do not match up with everyday Nevadans. And that’s why you’re seeing this huge, huge shift.

BUCK: Adam Laxalt, everybody, running in Nevada. We got a lot of folks in that state listening right now. Adam, if they want to help out, if they want to be a part of your victory, where do they go?

LAXALT: Yeah, AdamLaxalt.com. You know, we already have the largest army of volunteers. We need more. We gotta match the culinary union as tens of thousands of people that are knocking doors, and we certainly need money to be able to match some of the spend on TV opposite so again AdamLaxalt.com.

This is not only to save Nevada, this is to save America. We believe this is the 51st Senate seat. And, you know, we’ve got a lot of work to do to save this country.

BUCK: Adam, God bless. Let us know if we can help. Thank you for being with us.

LAXALT: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.