Donald Trump’s chances of taking a swing state in the 2024 presidential election are seemingly non-existent, according to a former state attorney general.
Adam Laxalt is the former Nevada Republican attorney general who also served as the state’s Trump campaign chairman during the 2020 election. Having lost the Nevada gubernatorial race in 2018 and a US Senate bid. last year despite Trump’s endorsement on both occasions, he left the former president behind and currently chairs a political action committee (PAC) supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign.
Speaking with NBC News For a report released Friday, Laxalt dismissed Trump’s chances of winning Nevada in the 2024 general election as negligible, given the many hurdles he currently faces and the fact that he lost the state in 2016 and 2020. Given the importance of the wins in swing states for both his 2016 victory and his 2020 loss, Trump will likely need to take as many as he can if he hopes to retake the White House in the next election cycle.
“Trump hasn’t won Nevada in the last two laps,” Laxalt said. “I was twice president of Trump. I don’t see a way for him to win Nevada in a general election. Those voters are not coming back.”
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Nevada has not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, when George W. Bush won the state in his re-election victory over John Kerry. Despite that history, forward-looking Republican strategists see the state as a viable battleground in 2024. DeSantis will visit Nevada soon for an appearance at the annual Basque Fry, an event that regularly draws thousands of conservative voters from Snowfall.
In response to Laxalt’s comments, Trump strategist Chris LaCivita criticized the former attorney general for his own record of electoral failure.
“So Adam Laxalt, who lost the gubernatorial race in 2018 and lost the Senate race in 2022, is giving President Trump a sermon?” LaCivita said. “That’s the pot that calls the kettle black.”
news week reached out to Trump’s press team by email for comment.
Trump is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, regularly leading the rest of the Republican candidate field by double digits in early polls, despite his growing legal troubles. DeSantis, long considered Trump’s main rival for the nomination, has seen his support dwindle in recent months amid questions about his leadership and social graces. Other candidates, such as Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson and Tim Scott, have consistently drawn single-digit support in the polls.