RENO, Nev. — Dean Heller is spoiling for a fight.
The Nevada senator is the only incumbent Republican facing a real fight in November, hailing from a purple state and a regular top target of Democrats. Yet, he remains confident, maintaining he wouldn’t trade places with others in competitive races less than three months until his face-off with Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., as Democrats pin their hopes of retaking the Senate on defeating him.
“I’m used to rough cycles, and this is going to be a rough cycle too,” Heller said in an hourlong interview over lunch. “If I have to be in a Senate race, I want to be the race. I want to be the race. I love the attention. My chances of winning are better if this is the race.”
“I’d much rather be me today than whoever comes out of the Arizona primary,” Heller said. “I’d much rather be me. I’d much rather be me than Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly, [Claire] McCaskill, [Joe] Manchin …. They’ve got tough races. People don’t understand Nevada. Washington, D.C., has very little understanding of Nevada.”
For Heller, his goal for the campaign cycle is to keep the focus on Nevada, something he realizes is a tall task in a hypernationalized political climate. He is intent on selling local issues — a booming economy that boasts a 4.7 percent unemployment rate statewide despite seeing it reach nearly 14 percent in Oct. 2010, his push to keep nuclear waste out of Yucca Mountain and his support for the 300,000 veterans in Nevada.
“The key to my race is making it about Nevada. That’s getting harder and harder to do,” Heller conceded. “If I make this about the future of Nevada, I’m going to get re-elected … If she makes it about Washington, D.C. and Donald Trump, she knows she wins.”
The mechanics of the race are a challenge for Heller in what is expected to be a second straight margin-of-error contest. Of particular concern is Clark County, which encapsulates Las Vegas and has roughly one million of the state’s 1.7 million voters, including a 125,000-voter registration advantage for Democrats, forcing him to win Washoe County and the rural regions. Clark County also includes a large swath of Hispanics, which Heller admits could be an issue given the messages emanating from the White House, particularly as the issues related to child separation at the border rages on.
“I am concerned because some of the rhetoric that is out there that has perhaps caused some consternation with the community,” Heller said.
Heller is also banking on President Trump for some help in his re-election bid after cozying up to him since his election nearly two years ago. It has been contentious at times. During the healthcare debate in July 2017, Trump warned Heller, who was seated right next to him, that he had better support Obamacare repeal if he wanted to “remain a senator.”
Most recently, Trump said onstage in June at the Nevada Republican Party Convention in Las Vegas that Heller was “a little shaky in the beginning,” but has come around. Heller says that while their relationship is healthy now, Trump continues to rib him for not backing him in the presidential contest.
“He has a long memory; let’s put it that way,” Heller said with a laugh.
Nevertheless, the president did Heller a massive favor by convincing Danny Tarkanian, a perennial candidate in the state, to drop his primary bid against the senator to run for the House once again. Heller believes the move allowed him to save between $3-5 million for his matchup with Rosen.
“I wasn’t his biggest supporter. Then, he became president of the United States — and that’s the difference,” Heller said. “He became president of the United States, and I think I have an obligation and a responsibility for the people here in the state of Nevada to support the president of the United States, whether that’s Bush, whether that’s Obama, whether that’s Trump, and I have supported the presidents after they’ve been elected.”
Heller said he would be all for Trump coming to the state in the stretch run to hold one of his signature campaign rallies during the stretch run. Trump made waves during his June appearance in Las Vegas, where he nicknamed Rosen “Wacky Jacky.”
Known for being a more moderate member, the Nevada Republican is banking on two key outside factors to help him turn out his base: Trump’s support and the presence of Adam Laxalt, the state’s attorney general, on the ballot as the GOP gubernatorial nominee. One Nevada-based GOP strategist likened Laxalt’s standing with conservatives to that of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Heller believes the two can help each other with different factions of the party much like Trump and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., did for each other in 2016.
Despite his support for Trump, one thing Heller could not care less about is the president’s Twitter feed, which he refuses to address when prodded by reporters. When asked why he doesn’t respond to them, he says “it’d be a full-time job,” noting that he already has one. When shown a pair of tweets while touring Kimmie Candy, a local producer of sweet treats, last week regarding the wildfires that spread throughout Northern California calling on trees to be cleared and for water to be diverted in order to combat the fires, Heller demurred.
“Now, you know why I don’t respond to every one of them,” he said.
Despite the national climate, Nevada political watchers believe Heller has put himself in as good of a position to win re-election as possible given the national climate. They cite his statewide name ID, having been on the ballot for much of the last 25 years and never having lost, his seniority, and his presence in the state, particularly in the northern region. However, they worry that national and outside factors could make the difference.
“He’s the only Republican running in a state that [Hillary] Clinton won,” said Greg Ferraro, a Nevada-based GOP strategist and a close adviser to Gov. Brian Sandoval. “Nevadans are obviously affected by national politics, and I think this cycle, that has a prominent consideration.”
Then, there is the famed political apparatus run by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who still holds outsized influence in the state despite leaving elected office in 2017. Although some believe the effectiveness of the “Reid Machine” is an open question now that he is retired, Heller expects it to come at him with force and says he has “no doubt” Reid is still pulling the strings.
“Alive and well,” Heller said of the famed political machine. “I anticipate it will be [a big factor], and I am planning this campaign like it will be.”
Heller’s colleagues are quick to defend him, saying he was instrumental in the GOP push to pass the tax law last December. They also view him as an influential lawmaker who has a knack for putting his stamp on legislation.
“He’s a good member. He’s a good politician … I don’t think he feels lonely. I think he feels special,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said, referring to Heller being the lone GOP incumbent to win a tough race six years ago and his push to replicate the feat this year. “2012 was a bad year, and he did great.”
“He’s a survivor,” Portman added.
