Horsford open to 2016 bid to return to Congress
WASHINGTON — Rep. Steven Horsford said Monday he is open to making a comeback bid for Congress in 2016 but plans first to ask voters in his Nevada district why he lost the job this month.
Horsford said he plans a listening tour in the counties of the 4th Congressional District in advance of any decision to run again. Democratic leaders are urging him to mount a comeback, and he said some House Republicans have as well, although he did not say who.
“Before I do anything I want to get out and listen and engage the voters,” Horsford said. “I want to ask all eligible voters and particularly those who chose not to vote what is it they want in their elected officials and what do they want in their government so I can then decide what I am going to do going forward.”
In the meantime, once he leaves office in January, Horsford plans to split his time between Las Vegas and the Washington area where his children will continue to go to school and where his wife Sonya is an associate professor of education at George Mason University.
Horsford said he has not started looking for a job, and has not been approached with offers of employment, at least not yet.
Back in Washington for a post-election lame duck session – and to pack up his office – the freshman Democrat made his first comments since being defeated by Republican Cresent Hardy on Nov. 4, by a 48.5 percent to 45.8 percent margin. Horsford was one in a cluster of Democrats who lost in a wave that enabled Republicans to increase their majority in the House and capture control of the U.S. Senate.
In Horsford’s view the outcome was not a judgment on his performance but on a dysfunctional Congress that turned off voters and kept them home on Election Day.
“Republicans shouldn’t be celebrating the fact that they somehow have a mandate when there was a historically low voter turnout, and particularly in Nevada where it was one of the lowest voter turnouts since the late ‘70s, early ‘80s,” Horsford said.
“We didn’t lose because Republicans voted more,” Horsford said. “We didn’t lose because Democrats voted for Republicans. We lost because the people who had the biggest stake in the outcome, middle class people, for whatever reason decided they weren’t motivated to vote.
“I felt we did everything we could to talk about how we were effective, bipartisan and delivered on behalf of constituents.”
Horsford attributed his defeat to the infusion of $820,000 into television ads late in October by Crossroads GPS, the Republican-backing superPAC, in support of Hardy.
“It wasn’t my opponent I was running against, it was this superPAC, and this is one of the most fundamental things that is broken in Washington DC,” Horsford said. “One superPAC that nobody knows who donated to them — that information is not public and they don’t have the guts to come out and say who why publicly are — chooses to buy an election.
“Had it not been for a superPAC trying to buy an election and a seat in Congress, that results would be different,” Horsford said. “They didn’t do it because they care about Nevada, or have a stake in Nevada. They could care less about the nature of our public school system. They just want power in Washington, D.C.”
In response, Crossroads spokesman Paul Lindsay said, “We hope that Steven Horsford will someday be able to come to grips with his own shortcomings as an elected official. Between his corruption as a state legislator and incompetence as a Member of Congress, it seemed clear that Horsford’s baggage was too heavy for voters to accept.”
Horsford said he and Hardy have had no contact since an election night phone call. Horsford said constituent casework being handled by his office will be transferred to Sens. Dean Heller and Harry Reid.
Contact Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC.
