Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Atlantic City invests big in sportsbooks.
have them shipped overnight to save the “fries” for the Basque Fry.
Unlike last year’s fry, which harped on the GOP fears that Democrats running for state and congressional offices were going to turn Nevada into “East California,” the 2019 group of speakers instead focused heavily on the presidential race while offering their bleak predictions for what would happen if Trump were not re-elected and the Republican political boogeyman: socialism.
“How much time do we have here before the socialists take over?” Matt Schlapp, chairman of American Conservative Union, asked the crowd. “We cannot believe that we are talking about electing a socialist,” Schlapp added later while talking about Democratic candidates such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist.
Others who spoke at the event included Mercedes Schlapp, Trump’s former director of strategic communications who now works on his re-election campaign, Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei, Republican Nevada Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, R-Minden, and state Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden.
For Laxalt, this year’s fry represented a significant shift. It was the first he hosted as neither an elected official or candidate actively running for office — and he told reporters before the event started that he is not running for office in 2020.
Instead, Laxalt said, he and his PAC would focus on helping Trump win Nevada, a state the president lost in 2016 and that saw Democrats in 2018 win five of six of the state constitutional offices and come one seat short of an outright supermajority in the state Legislature.
Asked why he thought 2020 would be different for Republicans, including Trump, given recent history, Laxalt said having the president at the top of the ticket will be a big help.
“I think the bottom line is that with Trump on the ballot, it makes a difference,” Laxalt said.
The future of our country is on the ballot. Matthew Whitaker Former acting U.S. Attorney General