GOP optimistic Nevada is key to White House and Senate majority

The GOP is confident Nevada could be the key it needs to win control of the Senate and put a Republican back in the Oval Office. 

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) explained why he thinks Republicans have a fighting chance to flip Nevada in a new interview with the Nevada Independent. 

Daines, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, believes his party can increase rural voter turnout in the state by roughly 20% this election cycle. Republicans dominate rural voters in the swing state. Nevada’s rural voter turnout stood at 50% in the 2022 midterm election. Daines hopes for a 70% turnout in 2024, and if successful, that could change the course of the presidential race and flip one of the state’s vulnerable Democratic Senate seats red. 

Both parties have hailed the western battleground as a critical key to victory in this election. The GOP believes winning Nevada in November could land a Republican in the White House. 

“If we win Nevada, we win the whole thing,” Trump said during a June rally in Las Vegas. 

At the time, Trump downplayed Sen. Jacky Rosen’s (D-NV) chances of keeping her competitive seat as she stared down a challenge from Republican Sam Brown. 

“We should win that race against Rosen,” Trump told the Las Vegas Review-Journal during an interview prior to the rally. “She’s terrible. She’s been a terrible senator, has no respect in Washington, and I think we should win that race.”

“Sam Brown’s going to have a good chance to win that seat,” said Daines.

Democrats are working to save a thin 51-49 majority in the Senate. Daines has worked hard to flip the balance to favor the GOP after Republicans suffered biting losses in the 2022 midterm elections. In June, he announced that the NRSC had raised record funds for Republican candidates, leaving the Senate’s campaign arm flush with cash. 

Recent polling from the Hill shows Vice President Kamala Harris trailing Trump by 2.5% in Nevada, a far better number than President Joe Biden held before he suspended his reelection bid.

“Nevada is younger and more diverse than any other battleground, which is why it is experiencing a significant swing toward Harris,” Democratic political consultant Rebecca Lambe explained about the Democratic momentum in a memo released Monday.