Clark County GOP hopeful blasts ‘broke’ party

A former state Senate candidate running to lead the Clark County GOP thrashed its leadership and finances Wednesday night in an “empty chair” debate after current party boss Jesse Law did not attend.

Jill Douglass told those gathered at the gathering of Clark County Republicans that a stalking case involving Law had become a distraction and called on him to resign his seat. The case was resolved in March.

Douglass, president of Battle Born Republican Women and an unsuccessful candidate for state Senate in 2024, also told conservative talk radio host Heidi Harris at the event that the party was “broke,” even having to strike a deal with its landlord to “settle for less” than the rent owed on the GOP offices.

Douglass said she wasn’t sure if the Clark County GOP had even raised $40,000 over the past two years, far from what she said was Law’s goal: $360,000. Of the money brought in, $14,000 of it came from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign renting space in the office, she said.

While Douglass said she had never seen the party’s books but alleged the county GOP has “constantly been in arrears,” paying $17,000 of $40,000 in owed rent. The party has “something like $11,000 in the bank,” Douglass said, with no finance director or yearly budget.

“If we come together, we can do things that are helpful (to campaigns). We can do billboards. … We can do the town halls and invite the independents so that we listen to their kitchen-table issues,” Douglass said. “But we can’t do any of those things if we don’t have money.”

The Clark County GOP will hold its chair election, which also features former assembly candidate Bob Olson, on Tuesday. Olson spoke at the “empty chair” debate — which wasn’t held by the party — before Douglass came on, but the event’s livestream was down or muted for much of it.

Neither Law nor the Clark County Republican Party immediately responded to a request for comment on the debate and Douglass’ claims.

But Law already has the backing of Trump, who endorsed him along with a slew of party officials for state-level positions on social media Wednesday morning before the scheduled debate. Law, one of Nevada’s six “fake electors” in the 2020 presidential election, has Gov. Joe Lombardo’s support as well.

Douglass, citing her work fundraising for the governor and her efforts trying to oust state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, said Lombardo’s endorsement of Law “doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t matter to get the endorsement of individuals who are not part of the CCRP, who have never been a part of the CCRP … who’ve not seen the dysfunction,” she said. “You know whose opinion matters? The people that are here tonight (and) the voting members of the central committee.”

Douglass, who’s running with a slate of candidates frustrated with current leadership, started the night by denying online rumors that she had organized the debate and had access to questions beforehand.

An organizer said at the start of the event that the debate was originally planned for July 7. However, it was moved to Wednesday to accommodate Law despite him not “fully” committing to the debate, the organizer said, causing the original moderators to drop out.

Building a candidate pipeline, party message

Douglass had few positive words for Nevada Democrats throughout the night, but she praised the party’s system for vetting, developing and training candidates to run for office. It’s something that doesn’t exist for local Republicans, she said.

The lack of organization has led to frequent, crowded Republican primaries, she said.

That forces Republican candidates to spend money that Douglass would rather see used against Democrats. Nominees are also entering general elections “bloody and bruised” as candidates they defeated in the primary refuse to back them.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but we will get to the point of people realizing that if you want the party’s support and the utilization of some of our resources … we need to be able to weigh in,” Douglass said.

Instead of costly intraparty fights, Douglass wants the Republicans’ vetting process to redirect candidates to other races or roles if the local GOP feels they’re not the best fit for the position at that time. She said more Republicans need to be running for county-level offices to oust Democrats.

Along with creating an infrastructure for the party, Harris said the other responsibility of the chair is to develop effective messaging. Douglass turned that around, saying the party needs to better listen to local residents if Republicans want to make inroads.

She said the current strategy looks more like suddenly appearing in an office in a community where the party is looking to gain ground and telling people to vote Republican because of the party’s “pro-business and pro-family” values.

“We have to stop just popping up during (an) election year and saying, ‘Vote Republican; we’re better for you,’ when they don’t know us,” Douglass said. “When we build a relationship and we show that we care, then you’ve earned the opportunity to have the conversations that can actually change people’s minds.”

Part of fixing that is a strong communications team, and she said focusing on public relations and community relations would be top of mind if elected. Republicans also need to better promote Lombardo’s work against Democratic policies, Douglass said.

“We also want to grow our membership,” she said. “The only way it’s going to look like the community that we represent is when we have a presence throughout all of our community, not just in certain suburb areas.”