The View From Nevada: Senate Race Too Close for GOP Comfort
*By J.D. Durkin*
When Dean Heller first entered national politics in his native Nevada, the likelihood of Donald Trump — then a real estate mega personality and TV host — entering the world of politics seemed an impossible joke to many. Trump, after all, was featured in both WWE Raw and WrestleMania 23 in 2007, the first year that Heller first served in Congress as a member of the House of Representatives.
Heller fought for years to establish his conservative credentials in the purple battleground he represents, clinching a U.S. Senate seat four years later. But years of Republican experience mean little when an outsider TV Manhattanite bulldozes longtime party orthodoxy, and now Heller is one of the few forces of Trump antagonism who remain standing.
But soon — he too may fall.
The tensions between Heller and Trump were never on display so clearly as they were on July 20, 2017, at the White House. Heller and other Republican Senators were stalled on healthcare that particular Wednesday; the President used his head-of-the-table bully pulpit to deliver a searing message to Heller seated just inches away:
"This was the one we were worried about. You weren't there. But you're gonna be. You're gonna be. Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn't he? And I think the people of your state, which I know very well, I think they're gonna appreciate what you hopefully will do. Any senator who votes against starting debate is really telling America that you're fine with Obamacare. But being fine with Obamacare isn't enough for another reason. Because it's gone. It's failed. It's not gonna be around."
The subtext of Trump's quip was clear: Listen pal, I’m gonna be funny about this for the cameras but don’t take this as a joke.
Healthcare last summer sharply divided the two men, though Heller eventually fell in line to vote through the President’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Trump’s choice of rhetoric, at times, was also a factor in Heller’s hesitancy to go full-MAGA. Forty-five percent of Nevada voters supported Trump in 2016, and the state’s ever-shifting demographics threaten Republican influence every year.
Now, in 2018 — with the healthcare fight long in the rearview and the rivalry between Heller and Trump (somewhat?) behind them, the uncertain political terrain could offer a sharp opportunity for Heller’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Jacky Rosen.
Rosen has been in Congress only two weeks longer than Trump has been President; but voters in the Silver State will have the opportunity in just weeks to decide between a household name they’ve known for decades versus a Congresswoman with momentum — and, perhaps most importantly for the moment, a clearly-defined and unequivocally vocal stance on the contentious confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Cheddar Politics breaks down the seismic shift in White House rhetoric surrounding Russia's war on Ukraine. President Biden began calling the alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in the Kyiv region "genocide." Foreign policy and national security analyst A. Ari Aramesh joins Cheddar News to discuss what constitutes genocide and whether the developments in Ukraine qualify.
President Joe Biden said he is considering forgiving some federal student debt, a step that would help him fulfill a campaign promise and provide relief to borrowers who took out thousands of dollars in loans to finance their higher education.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 28, 2022, with Elon Musk mocking Twitter's top legal exec Vijaya Gadde on the platform itself, a probe in George Floyd's death finding discrimination within the Minneapolis police force, the latest California drought leading to new water restrictions, and more.
Tech giant Microsoft won a military contract for the production of its IVAS (integrated visual augmentation system) combat goggles, based on its HoloLens ARG tech, worth up to $21.9 billion over 10 years. However, the Pentagon is now saying that the device "has not yet demonstrated the capability to serve as a fighting goggle," and that the Army made mistakes in the program's initial stages by not clearly describing minimum performance standards. While testing continues, concerns have grown outside of the Defense Department to Congress and even within Microsoft itself. Cheddar's Ken Buffa takes a deeper look at the possible boondoggle.
U.S. stocks fell sharply to close Tuesday's session, with the Nasdaq dropping 3.95% and hitting a new one-year low. Frances Newton Stacy, Director of Strategy for Optimal Capital, joins Cheddar News to discuss her reaction to how markets closed the session, and to break down Q3 2022 earnings from Microsoft. "Netflix was sort of the big warning, and I think Big Tech was down today in anticipation of these earnings," she says.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that strips Disney World of its special self-governing status. This came after Disney spoke out against Florida's so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, some saying in retaliation of that. Ben Means, Professor of Law and the John T. Campbell Chair in Business and Professional Ethics at the University of South Carolina School of Law, breaks down how the new law might impact Disney’s business moving forward.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 27, 2022, with Tesla stocks absorbing an initial hit following Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, Russia pausing its natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 mission taking off, and more.
Russia and the United States have exchanged prisoners. Russia released a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow while the U.S. released a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a prison sentence in Connecticut.
