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President Donald Trump arrives with Senator Dean Heller, R-Nev., On Air Force One at the Elko Regional Airport on Saturday for a campaign rally.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
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Carolyn Kaster / AP
President Donald Trump arrives with Senator Dean Heller, R-Nev., On Air Force One at the Elko Regional Airport on Saturday for a campaign rally.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
On Saturday, Dean Heller, a Nevada Senator, addressed President Trump at a rally and told him, "Everything you touch turns into gold."
Whether or not Heller will return to the Senate next year may be the ultimate test of this statement – at least when it comes to politics.
Few Republicans have gone further than Heller, from Trump's ingrained critic to Trump's convinced ally. Two years after having declared in a memorable way that he was "99% against" Trump, Heller does not only show up with him several times at political rallies, he uses his slots to speak at events for amass compliment after compliment to the president.
"We were not friends, I did not like him, he did not like me." Trump recently told a Nevada crowd. The President provoked Heller's mockery memorablely during a meeting at the White House at a time when Heller was one of the pillars of Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But then, Trump recalls, "we started to love each other, and then we loved each other."
A close relationship with Trump is an asset in 2018 if a Republican wants to survive a major challenge. But it is unclear how this positioning is played out in a general election in a state as divided as Nevada.
Whether voters reward or punish Heller for his rapprochement with Trump will be one of the many key political questions that Nevada's Senate outcomes will answer.
The result will also show whether Democrats or Republicans have been more energetic this year and how Democrats have sailed on the difficult terrain of the 2018 Senate card.
Nevada will likely be the most watched Senate race in the last two weeks of the mid-term election campaign. Advance voting plays a crucial role in the Nevada elections, with more than half of the voters in the state voting before polling day. The county electoral commissions provide daily updates on the number of voters in each party that voted, and Democrats and Republicans are working hard to get as many people to the ballot box as possible before the polls. November 6th.
After three full days of voting, it is difficult to know which party has the upper hand. Nevada's most prominent political journalist, Jon Ralston, wrote Tuesday morning: "It does not seem to be a wave election yet, as it was in 2014 (in red) and 2016 (in blue). But this is not like the last two – it now looks like an exceptionally high year of participation for three-quarters of the last mid-term presidential year. "
In general, the higher the turnout rate, the better for the Nevada Democrats, but Ralston warned against drawing too many conclusions until several days of early votes arrived.
In the meantime, the Democrats are doing everything in their power to energize the type of voter running in the presidential elections but remains halfway there. Ex-President Barack Obama rallied Monday in Las Vegas with Heller's Democrat Representative Jack Heller, warning that "the consequences of your stay at home would be profoundly dangerous for our country, for our democracy."
Nevada representative Jacky Rosen watches former President Barack Obama speak at an informal rally as he campaigns for Nevada Democratic candidates Monday in Las Vegas.
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Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Nevada representative Jacky Rosen watches former President Barack Obama speak at an informal rally as he campaigns for Nevada Democratic candidates Monday in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden recently visited the state, as did several Democratic candidates from 2020.
For its part, Rosen tries to channel the anti-Trump energy into votes. While many other Democrat candidates have tried to keep Trump out of their campaign's messaging, Rosen is considering a vote for her as a vote to put a damper on the Trump administration.
She has repeatedly criticized Trump's decision to try to put an end to the deferred action plan for child protection, called DACA, as well as her controversial policy of separating children from parents who had tried to enter the United States illegally on the southern border. And Heller 's shift from "no" to "yes" when Obamacare' s repeal attempt last year is a centerpiece of Rosen 's advertising campaign.
Rosen told NPR that the repeal attempt had touched voters for one simple reason: everyone was getting sick. "It's the thing that binds each person," she said, "even though there may be other things that worry them." That's why it's Is important. "
Rosen called Heller a "blank check" for Trump, and his campaign portrayed him as one of those men in trompe l'oeil dislocated, often spotted in front of car dealerships, drifting in the wind between the anti-trump and pro-trump positions.
At the end of his only televised debate last week, Heller defended his new confidence in President Trump. "We started working together and that created a relationship of trust," he said. "When you're successful, it builds trust, and when you trust, it creates friendships."
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