Boo Ya!
California billionaire Tom Steyer says a closely watched Senate race and a much-anticipated governor’s race will be the top targets of his new multimillion-dollar push to get young Nevadans to the polls.
The San Francisco-based hedge fund tycoon said Thursday that the $2 million millennial-focused voter turnout effort will look to oust vulnerable Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and keep Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt out of the governor’s mansion.
It will also seek to defend a pair of House seats now held by Southern Nevada Democrats.
The initiative is centered around the work of 58 organizers and other volunteers expected to fan out across 14 Nevada college campuses. Volunteers with a Steyer-affiliated nonprofit plan to knock on at least 45,000 doors around the state in a separately funded effort.
Details on the statewide initiative come more than two months after Steyer first unveiled NextGen Rising — a broader, $30 million push to help Democrats seize control of Congress by mobilizing 18- to 35-year-old voters in 10 political battleground states.
Steyer — a Democratic mega-donor who spent $91 million on a similar effort in 2016, then another $20 million in an attempt to impeach President Donald Trump — considers his relatively modest Nevada outlay a good investment toward activating a sleeping giant voting bloc of millennials.
“I think we’d say the top target is Dean Heller,” Steyer told the Reno Gazette Journal. “But you can quote me on this: We think both Heller and Laxalt are awful.”
Steyer expects the Nevada initiative will reach some 250,000 young voters through mail, online advertising and traditional volunteer outreach.
He declined to say how much he planned to spend in support of a proposed renewable energy ballot measure that would require Nevada electric companies to provide half of their electricity through renewable resources or energy efficiency measures.
This is great news because the Koch Brothers are heavily invested in both Heller and Laxalt. These are going to be some expensive races but ones we must win. In the meantime, why not get involved with Rep. Jacky Rosen’s (D. NV) U.S. Senate campaign and Clark County Commissioners Steve Sisolak (D. NV) and Chris Giunchigliani’s (D. NV) campaigns now. Click below to donate and get involved.
Jacky Rosen
Steve Sisolak
Chris Giunchigliani