Las Vegas is a popular destination for candidates of both parties to collect campaign cash from high-rolling political contributors. But Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), while headed to Nevada for a June 17 political event, will be far from the Vegas Strip.
DeSantis will headline the Eighth Annual Basque Fry in Gardnerville, Nevada, in the state’s sparsely populated northern tier. The event, sponsored by Morning in Nevada PAC, is taking place at the Corley Ranch and will last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
DESANTIS TO HEADLINE CONSERVATIVE NEVADA PAC’S ANNUAL BASQUE FRY AMID 2024 SPECULATION
Morning in Nevada PAC is closely tied to DeSantis ally and former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who once served as its president. Laxalt, the grandson of Paul Laxalt, a revered late governor and senator from Nevada, lost races for governor in 2018 and Senate in 2022.
DeSantis is widely considered the most potent Republican primary rival to former President Donald Trump. DeSantis, in the run-up to his likely jump into the 2024 presidential waters, has traveled somewhat to early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire, along with Wisconsin and a few other stops.
DeSantis left Florida even less in 2022, though it was clear he would easily win a second term as governor (his winning margin ended up being 19 points.) DeSantis made only a few out-of-state campaign appearances as he was increasingly mentioned as a 2024 presidential candidate. That included an event for Laxalt’s ill-fated Senate bid. The two have known each other since they were Navy judge advocate generals and served in Iraq.
Northern Nevada has long been home to a significant number of residents of Basque lineage. They’re descendants of a people who live in Spain and France in areas bordering the Bay of Biscay and encompassing the western foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. Basques first emigrated to Nevada for gold in the 19th century and then again later to put their shepherding skills to use in northern Nevada’s rugged mountainous terrain.
The 2024 Nevada Republican presidential caucuses will be held on Feb. 24, 2024. DeSantis’s name recognition in Nevada at this point still pales in comparison to Trump’s, president from 2017-21, and before that, a business mogul whose name has long adorned high-rise hotels in and around Las Vegas.
Haley a comet of activity in early-voting states
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for most of the Trump administration’s first two years, is headed back to the traditional early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Haley has kept an active campaign schedule since declaring her presidential bid in February and now facing declared GOP primary rivals Trump, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), and “anti-woke” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. They’re vying to challenge President Joe Biden in November 2024, as the incumbent faces only nuisance Democratic primary challenges, from writer and spiritualist Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of the nation’s most famous modern political dynasty and an anti-vaccine activist many consider a conspiracy theorist.
Haley is heading back to Iowa for a series of town halls. It will be her fourth swing through the state as a presidential candidate. Haley events will be held May 17 in Ankeny, May 18 in Cedar Falls and Dubuque, and May 19 in Davenport.
Haley will make her fourth trip to New Hampshire. Planned events include a May 23 Rockingham County Republican Committee Freedom Founders Dinner, at Atkinson Resort, within walking distance of the Massachusetts line.
Then, it’s on to a staple of campaigning in the New Hampshire primary, the Politics and Eggs event at St. Anselm College, on May 24, followed that day with a campaign barbecue hosted by former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who was in the diplomatic corps at the same time as Haley during his Trump-era stint as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.
Asa Hutchinson’s Iowa blitz
Iowa Republicans, after a somewhat slow start to Hawkeye State campaign activity, are seeing a lot more of the 2024 aspirants. That includes several busy campaign days for Hutchinson, governor of Arkansas from 2015-2023, who held a pair of high-ranking roles in former President George W. Bush’s administration and, before that, was a House member for four-plus years.
Hutchinson is, so far, the most explicitly anti-Trump Republican in the race. While largely focusing on his conservative record as Arkansas governor, Hutchinson has said Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, at the very least helping to inspire the violence, is disqualifying for another White House term.
Hutchinson will be in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 17, for a 5:30-7 p.m. “Ask Asa Meet and Greet” with the Black Hawk County GOP. On May 18, it’s on to Quad Cities for another meet-and-greet, from 9-10:30 a.m., in Davenport. Followed that day by “Pints and Politics with Asa Hutchinson,” from 6-7:30 p.m., in Davenport. On May 19, Hutchinson is slated for a 6-7:30 p.m. meet-and-greet in Clinton, Iowa, with the Iowa County GOP.
The Clinton County event has a certain historical resonance for Hutchinson’s presidential bid. Hutchinson was a House “manager” (prosecutor) in the 1999 Senate impeachment trial of Democratic President Bill Clinton. And the careers of the twin Arkansans from opposing parties had intertwined a decade-and-a-half earlier.
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In 1984, Hutchinson, amid his five-year run as U.S. attorney for western Arkansas, prosecuted then-Gov. Bill Clinton’s half-brother, Roger Clinton, on federal drug charges. Roger Clinton was sentenced to two years in prison and, under a plea bargain, agreed to testify in other cocaine-related cases.
