Commentary: So who’s the Nevada Republican leader now? Root?

If there’s one person who may be even more responsible for the Republicans’ historic-folkloric loss in Nevada’s second congressional district than Trump, it would be conspiracy marketer and decorative state whackadoodle Wayne Allyn Root. 

Trump had to get his Nevada congressional endorsement intel, such as it was, from somewhere. At least in the CD2 primary, Trump obviously wasn’t taking cues from Camp Lombardo. The governor was backing someone other than the quack Trump’s endorsement propelled into the general election.

The Nevada person who was most likely instrumental in getting Trump to back the quack would have been Root, a fixture in the MAGA media universe, an occasional warm-up act at Trump’s Nevada rallies over the years, and a very early and loud supporter of the extremely low-quality candidate who would become the first Republican in history to lose CD2. 

This week, for a couple days after what Ron DeSantis described as an “extinction-level event” for Republicans, it looked like Trump might hole up in his happy place and concentrate on redecorating for the remainder of the most disgusting presidency in U.S. history. 

Those hopes were dashed Friday when Trump announced he was turning to the neo-Nazi Nosferatu doppelganger, Stephen Miller, to be his new chief of staff. The fresh consensus is that a Miller-guided Trump will lean in to his underlying instincts and double down on divisiveness, destruction, lawlessness, and senseless chaos.

Root is tickled pink.

“Susie Wiles out- BRAVO!” Root posted on X Friday after the Miller news dropped. “Spend next 2 months left in 2026 confirming 100 GOP judges, nuking filibuster to pass entire Trump agenda, and CHALLENGE THE ELECTION. Time now for my “NEED USA”- National Emergency for Elections Declaration. It was rigged & stolen.”

What’s left of congressional Republicans are unlikely to have much appetite for Root’s prescriptions. Some are openly expressing disgust at Trump naming Miller chief of staff.

For years, Democratic pollyanas have been predicting the MAGA fever will break, and Republicans will rejoin the reality-based community. Maybe it’ll really happen this time.

But then, it also looked like that was going to happen on January 7, 2021.

There’s currently a Republican vacuum in Nevada, in leadership, ideology, and purpose.

Yes, Root’s a preposterous figure. 

He’s also a preposterous figure who was sought out by the Clark County Republican Party in March of this year to emcee its Lincoln Day Dinner. The event’s featured speakers were Lombardo and Nevada Republican Party chair and proud 2020 fake elector Michael McDonald. Lombardo hailed Root as an “awesome spokesperson” for Republicans.

And as of Wednesday morning, Root is a preposterous figure who might be the most nationally prominent Republican in Nevada.

Nevada Democrats are currently and understandably celebrating because they won All The Things. 

Spoiler: Republicans are going to win some elections in Nevada again.

What kind of Republicans will they be? A MAGA garbage fire and brimstone revival led by the screeching, shrieking likes of Root, McDonald, and Michele Fiore? 

Or are there any serious, sensible Nevadans, i.e., Republicans who Root refers to as RINOs, willing to denounce Trump’s lawlessness, corruption, malevolence, and incompetence?

Addled as he is, Trump remains wracked by demons and obsessed with himself, images of unlimited autocratic power dancing in his head.

If there are Nevada Republicans who understand the need to reject Trump and Trumpism (and Miller), now would be an opportune time for them to step up and say so. Better late than never.

Unless they don’t mind risking the chance that the political opposition to Democrats in Nevada will be shaped not by facts and public policy priorities, but by the noxious and polarizing fanaticism of people like McDonald and Root.