Nevada Dems will review election results that GOP swept

The Nevada Democratic Party said Monday it plans a review to determine “what went wrong in 2014” elections in which Republicans swept to power, winning all the state’s top offices and taking control of the Legislature.

The state evaluation comes as the national Democratic Party conducts its own review of the election that saw the GOP take over the U.S. Senate and make major gains in the Republican-led House. The GOP sweep was part of a national wave fed in part by unhappiness with Democratic President Barack Obama, whose popularity is at a low point.

In Nevada, freshman U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., was defeated, losing to Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, in a major upset in the 4th Congressional District.

Nevada Democrats failed to get enough voters to the polls in the low-turnout midterm election while GOP enthusiasm was higher. Total turnout was 45.5 percent, the lowest in a general election since 1978. Heading into Election Day, Republicans had a 24,000-ballot lead over Democrats from two weeks of early voting. Then the GOP won last Tuesday, as well.

The Democratic Party now must reboot for the 2016 election when the White House will be at stake as well as the political future of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has said he plans to run for re-election to a fifth term.

“Over the coming weeks we will evaluate what went wrong in 2014 to help improve upon our performance as we prepare for the 2016 presidential caucuses and general election where we will win Nevada for the Democratic nominee for president, re-elect Senator Reid, win back our Democratic majorities in the legislature, and elect more Democrats to the House of Representatives,” Zach Hudson, spokesman for the state party, said in a statement Monday when asked by the Review-Journal whether Nevada Democrats would conduct an election review.

GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval easily won re-election last Tuesday, leading a Republican sweep of the top six constitutional offices, including lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and controller.

Republicans also flipped the state Senate, winning a key Las Vegas district that put them in charge 11 seats to 10. In the Assembly, Republicans picked up 10 seats statewide, winning majority control with 25 seats to 17 seats for Democrats.

On the national scene, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on Saturday announced the top-to-bottom internal party review of the 2014 and 2010 elections. She said that in the coming weeks she would appoint Democratic organizers, activists and strategists to conduct the review.

“We know we’re right on the issues,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “The American people believe in the causes we’re fighting for. But the electoral success we have when our presidential nominee is able to make the case to the country as a whole doesn’t translate in other elections.

“That’s why we lost in 2010, and it’s why we lost on Tuesday. We’ve got to do better.”

Nick Phillips, the political director of the Clark County Republican Party, said the GOP won out because Democrats failed to lead at both the state and national levels while in power.

“I hope that while they are reviewing the outcomes of the election, they will also look at their legislative track record for the prior six years that led up to this and work together with Republicans this legislative cycle to get real, positive good done for our communities,” Phillips said.

Phillips added that DNC Chair Schultz is misguided in thinking Democrats are “right on the issues” and lost only because party backers didn’t show up at the polls this year. He called it “an unfortunate statement since it shows that they’re not likely to adjust their positions on anything and truly do just believe it was a fluke.”

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.