Paul Laxalt, Nev. senator and Reagan’s ‘first friend,’ dies

Former governor was Reagan’s national chairman

WASHINGTON — Paul Laxalt, a former Nevada governor and senator who was President Ronald Reagan’s closest friend and adviser in the Senate, died Monday at age 96.

Laxalt, who was governor of the Silver State from 1967 to 1971, was first elected to the Senate back in 1974, overcoming the weight of Watergate to narrowly defeat Lt. Gov. Harry Reid. Reid would ultimately succeed Laxalt following his retirement, winning the Senate seat in 1986.

After his retirement from the Senate, Laxalt went on to work as a lobbyist in Washington.

Laxalt’s relationship with Reagan dated to their time serving as governors together. Reagan was elected to the first of two terms as California’s chief executive the same year Laxalt was elected to the governor’s mansion.

He would go on to serve as national chairman Reagan’s three presidential campaigns, in 1976, 1980 and 1984. In the Senate, Laxalt’s status as “the first friend” meant that his endorsement was tantamount to support from the president himself in the early 1980s.

Part of that could be traced, at least according to Laxalt himself, to the senator’s role in convincing Reagan to run in 1980 after falling short in the GOP primary to President Gerald Ford in 1976.

Reagan’s subsequent electoral success saw a rise of Laxalt’s influence in the Senate as well.

But even outside his role as White House confidant, Laxalt was a popular figure in his own right in Nevada.

His name resurfaced in 2013 when his daughter Michelle publicly acknowledged that her son, Adam, was fathered by thenSen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. She was 24 at the time; Domenici was 46 and married. Adam Laxalt was elected in 2014 as Nevada attorney and is running for governor this year.

Born in Reno on Aug. 2, 1922, to Basque immigrants from France, his deep connection to Nevada stood out in a young, growing state filled with newcomers. Before being elected governor, he was Ormsby County district attorney and lieutenant governor.

While growing up in Carson City, Nev., current GOP Sen. Dean Heller would take his bicycle to play with Laxalt’s children.

“With a public-service career spanning four decades, Paul epitomized the very best Nevada had to offer by putting service above self. He served as a friend and confidante to numerous Nevadans as his wealth of knowledge steered many of us to seek his valued advice and insight,” Heller said in a statement. “His down-to-earth, kind demeanor was befitting of his campaign slogan of choice, ‘One of Us.’ Paul was a son of Nevada and indeed one of us.”

“To those closest to me, my grandfather was both a light and a compass: a testament to what a man should be,” the younger Laxalt said. “To me, my grandfather was the ultimate role model, and much of what I know about being an American, a citizen and a leader, I learned from him.”

“He was the embodiment of the American dream, a pillar of the greatest generation, and he represented all that is best in American politics,” the attorney general said of his grandfather.