How will Nevada Republicans observe January 6 this year?

Saturday marks three years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

One way Nevada Republicans might commemorate the insurrection is by being thankful Sigal Chattah did not win the attorney general’s race in 2022, and the Democrat who did has finally filed criminal charges against Nevada’s fake electors. 

Because not only were Nevada’s contingent of frauds, along with their cohorts from six other states, key to the plot that drove that insurrection. They are also still burrowed like – as their leader would say  – “vermin” at the center of Nevada Republican politics. Convictions, and the consequences thereof, might finally shake their grip on the Nevada State Republican Party – an organization, by the way that has failed to deliver a high-profile victory in the state, or even control of one house of the legislature, for a decade.

And no, neither Gov. Joe Lombardo’s victory in 2022 nor U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei’s perpetual wins in a safe Republican congressional district count. Lombardo was elected, and Amodei has continued to be, despite the Nevada State Republican Party, not because of it.

Indicted fake elector Michael McDonald, the state party’s chair since 2012, has never given any indication that the party’s top candidates racking up a decade of fail might have something to do with him.

Unlike some fake electors in other states, nor has McDonald shown a morsel of remorse for his role in a despicable insurrection that literally couldn’t have happened without fake electors.

On the contrary, introducing his lord and savior at last month’s Trump rally in Reno, McDonald yet again leaned into the despicable lie, deliberately repeated to undermine public trust in the legitimacy of Nevada elections Republicans keep losing, that the 2020 election was rigged. “You give us a fair election, I’ll give you the next president of the United States,” McDonald bellowed.

McDonald’s entire career has been, let’s say, situational. So his fealty to Trump is understandable. 

One of the overriding themes of Trump’s 2024 campaign is “retribution.” And even McDonald is probably self-aware enough to recognize he’s exactly the sort of knucklehead who could easily stumble onto Trump’s bad side. “Weaponization” of the Justice Department? It’s a safe bet that McDonald and everyone else who has been in or adjacent to Trump’s orbit fears the prospect of a Trump DOJ far more than they fear Biden’s.

In the meantime, in an affront and embarrassment to all Nevadans but especially to its Republicans, McDonald continues to be state party chair. Fellow fake elector Jim DeGraffenried is Nevada Republican Party National Committeeman. Fake elector Jesse Law is chair of the Clark County Republican Party – for which he was Lombardo-endorsed – and a candidate for the state assembly. Fake elector Jim Hindle is state party vice chair and also Storey County’s clerk – the county’s top election official.

Happy Insurrection Day, Nevada Republicans. Even in a nation where Republicans everywhere have unconditionally surrendered to Trump and Trumpism, you manage to stand out. 

It would be a fine thing…

Normally, a governor is both the titular and de facto head of his state party. 

When it comes to his party’s indicted fake electors,  Lombardo – a man who campaigned in his lawman’s uniform – has been a potted plant. 

He’s muttered the occasional sweet nothing about how, gosh, January 6 sure did bother him, him being in law enforcement so long and all.  But those utterances are usually made in tandem with his excuses for Trump, and a determined refusal to acknowledge what January 6 was about and who made it happen.

And who can blame him? Lombardo was still relatively new to partisan politics. When he got Trump’s attention that one time for suggesting Trump wasn’t great, it was none other than the chairwoman of the National Republican Party, Ronna McDaniel, who instructed Lombardo to flip-flop. Which he did on command. Who, after all, is Lombardo to question the national party, let alone Trump?

Maybe Lombardo remains inspired by the official position of the organization McDaniel leads – when fake electors facilitated the attempt of a violent mob to overthrow an election, it was just an example of “legitimate political discourse.”

(McDaniel is also Mitt Romney’s niece. Which has nothing to do with anything. It’s just  always fun to mention.)

Some – not many, but a few – Republican officials around the country have the strength of character to denounce and condemn fake electors and the depravity for which they stand. Lombardo, by contrast, normalizes – and even endorses – them.

Amodei’s reaction to the insurrection, and his explanation for voting not to impeach Trump for it,  was similarly a study in evasive calculated cowardice. Like Lombardo, Amodei strives to weather Trump, ignoring him when possible yet fully accepting him by default. So far it’s working. No MAGAmaniac has primaried Amodei yet. (Danny Tarkanian in 2022 doesn’t count; he never does). But this year’s filing deadline isn’t until March 15 (oh hi Joey Gilbert).

Not to be outdone in the wishy-washy sweepstakes, in a 2022 TV interview, Sam Brown, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat this year (again), described the attack on the Capitol as “so complex that you have a mixture of, of what I imagined, some people believed was just a patriotic expression of their love of country, and some of their concerns. But there’s obviously bad actors involved as well.”

Trump of course is the Bad Actor in Chief. But like any memorable production, the insurrection would not have been possible if not for the efforts of people playing key supporting roles – Nevada’s fake electors. 

It would be a fine thing, for their party, for their state, for their nation – hell, for themselves – if Nevada Republicans chose to observe January 6 this year by engaging in some somber reflection. It would be an even finer (albeit unthinkable) thing if, upon that reflection, they admitted to themselves the severity of the threat to democracy and rights – including the right of Nevadans to have their votes counted – that is posed by Trump, and if they determined that threat outweighs their dislikes, both genuine and manufactured, for Biden administration policies.

Alternatively, and more in keeping with the top policy priority of today’s Republican Party – sticking it to the libs – Nevada Republicans could observe January 6 by loudly celebrating their disregard for democracy and throwing a parade, with McDonald, festooned in a pompom hat and sash, as grand marshal.

But most likely they’ll do what they’ve been doing ever since everyone stared in shock while watching a violent Trump-incited attack on the U.S. government unfold on TV. They’ll pretend it wasn’t all that bad, and whine that people are paying too much attention to it. 

It’s not a hard pull for them. Republicans don’t really like democracy anyway.

Correction: Joe Lombardo endorsed Jesse Law for Clark County Republican Party chair. This column originally mischaracterized Lombardo’s endorsement of Law.