As in other swing states, Republicans in Nevada engaged in intense intraparty bickering after Trump lost the 2020 election. But the “GOP’s civil war has been especially bitter and long-lasting” in this largely center-right state, Politico reported prior to the 2022 midterms, noting that “the turmoil is spreading across the battleground state, consuming the GOP in a bonfire of lawsuits, counterclaims, and resignations.” Since then, the chaos has settled somewhat as “the GOP’s shrinking band of traditionalists” gave way to the MAGA wing still led by Chairman Michael McDonald, one of Nevada’s six fake electors, and other Trump sycophants.
In 2024, the state GOP broke with convention by holding a presidential caucus two days after the state-mandated primary, barring candidates who appeared on the primary ballot from also competing in the caucus. With Trump choosing to “compete” in the caucus, he faced only one virtually unknown candidate and “won” by a landslide, while Nikki Haley lost in the primary to the ballot option Nevada’s pro-Trump governor and most other Republicans chose: “none of these candidates.”
The following are among the state’s GOP leaders who express unfettered loyalty to Trump and his ongoing claim that any election he doesn’t win is “rigged”:
- Michael J. McDonald | Chairman
First elected in 2012, Michael McDonald still chairs the Nevada GOP. He has been a diehard Trump loyalist since 2015, and in 2024 bucked Nevada state law by holding party caucuses instead of a primary, assuring the former president that rather than worry about a primary challenge from Nikki Haley, “we will deliver you 100% of delegates for the state of Nevada.”
In December 2020, McDonald served as one of Nevada’s six fake electors and was subsequently subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, where he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent more than 200 times. In December 2023, a Nevada grand jury indicted him on two felony charges for fraudulently submitting documents to Congress claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. In June 2024, a district court judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the attorney general had filed it in the wrong venue—Las Vegas instead of Reno or Carson City, where the defendants actually gathered to sign the phony documents. A pro-Trump nonprofit paid $100,000 in legal fees to help get the fake electors case dismissed. - Jim Hindle | Vice Chairman
Durward James Hindle III is a managing partner at Cascade Survey Research who served as one of Nevada’s six fake electors in December 2020. In December 2023, a Nevada grand jury indicted him on two felony charges for fraudulently submitting documents to Congress claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. In June 2024, a district court judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the attorney general had filed it in the wrong venue—Las Vegas instead of Reno or Carson City, where the defendants actually gathered to sign the phony documents. A pro-Trump nonprofit paid $100,000 in legal fees to help get the fake electors case dismissed. - Jim DeGraffenreid | National Committeeman
Jim DeGraffenreid served as one of Nevada’s six fake electors in December 2020 and in January 2022, he was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. In December 2023, a Nevada grand jury indicted him on two felony charges for fraudulently submitting documents to Congress claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. In June 2024, a district court judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the attorney general had filed it in the wrong venue—Las Vegas instead of Reno or Carson City, where the defendants actually gathered to sign the phony documents. A pro-Trump nonprofit paid $100,000 in legal fees to help get the fake electors case dismissed. - Sigal Chattah | National Committeewoman
In her reelection campaign to serve on the Republican National Committee, Sigal Chattah posted an endorsement from Trump on her Twitter/X account, where he calls her a “strong fighter for election integrity.” In 2022, she ran for attorney general in Nevada but lost. She has multiple ties to people involved with the insurrection, and calls far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, her “hero.” - Susan Ruch | Carson City Central Committee Chair
Susan Ruch’s personal Facebook posts suggest that Democrats are looking for new ways to cheat using “illegals” for voting. Although Trump essentially ran unopposed in the February 2024 Republican Caucus in Nevada, she credits his 98% win to paper ballots and required voter ID. - Jesse Law | Clark County Central Committee Chair
Jesse Law, a former Trump campaign staffer, served as one of Nevada’s six fake electors in December 2020. In December 2023, a Nevada grand jury indicted him on two felony charges for fraudulently submitting documents to Congress claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. In June 2024, a district court judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the attorney general had filed it in the wrong venue—Las Vegas instead of Reno or Carson City, where the defendants actually gathered to sign the phony documents. A pro-Trump nonprofit paid $100,000 in legal fees to help get the fake electors case dismissed. - Leo Blundo | Nye County Central Committee Chair
Leo Blundo perpetuates the myth of voter fraud by supporting legislation to bar noncitizens from voting (which is already illegal in federal and state elections) and posts a constant barrage of pro-Trump propaganda and retweets on his Twitter/X page. “This is the TeamTrump plan here in Nevada,” he writes. “We are at war… and will be activating We the People to win Nevada in 2024.” - Bruce Parks | Washoe County Central Committee Chair
In July 2022, when Washoe County GOP Treasurer Sandra Linares secretly recorded a conversation with Chair Bruce Parks, he “insisted that fighting election fraud is paramount,” according to the Reno-Gazette Journal. When she pointed out that inflammatory comments about rigged elections were hurting donations as well as “our candidates,” Parks responded with: “Sometimes there’s collateral damage.”