Adam Laxalt is the latest candidate to be publicly disowned after his family called his gubernatorial pitch misleading

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Writing in the Reno Gazette Journal yesterday, 12 members of Adam Laxalt’s family penned an op-ed strongly attacking their relative’s campaign for governor. The family, who identify themselves as lifetime Nevadans, say the current state attorney general’s campaign is misleading and inauthentic.

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At a recent campaign fundraiser, Laxalt framed himself as a homespun Nevadan posing with farm equipment and bales of hay, they wrote, and then lambasted the move as a cynical stunt.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The campaign video in which Adam Laxalt’s family say he plays up his Nevada connection

“This event perfectly captures the Adam Laxalt candidacy: the phoniness of the setting and costumes, the pretense of folksiness used as a prop for Washington power players.”

“All this careful arrangement is meant to project an image of authenticity, of a deep family tie to Nevada and its history. But it’s all fake, all props paid for by someone else,” they wrote.

They went on to question his stance on immigration, saying his brief career as a practicing lawyer was a “train wreck”, and decry his positions on land conservation, healthcare and reproductive rights.

Whether or not the op-ed will have an effect on the race remains to be seen – he is currently in a tight contest with Democrat Steve Sisolak. But the move is illustrative of the exceptionally high stakes of the midterms and an atmosphere in which even family can no longer be counted upon to stay silent when one of their own is seeking office. In fact, the Laxalt family is far from the first one to publicly split asunder as the campaign has unfolded.

In September, Arizona representative Paul Gosar, a Republican, learned that lesson the hard way when six siblings released a breathtaking and surprising campaign ad for his opponent David Brill, in which they levied all manner of criticism at their brother, all the while holding a shocking reveal of their relation until the end.

Among other things, the Gosar siblings say it was Paul’s support of the far-right groups who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, that showed them he had lost his way.

Kevin Nicholson ran afoul of his family, too. In his unsuccessful primary bid for the Republican nomination to the Wisconsin Senate race earlier this year, both his parents and his brother donated the maximum amount allowed to Democrat incumbent Tammy Baldwin.

Also this summer, Bobby Goodlatte, the son of the House judiciary committee chairman, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, blasted his father on Twitter for his handling of FBI agent Peter Strzok’s hearing.

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“I’m deeply embarrassed that Peter Strzok’s career was ruined by my father’s political grandstanding,” he wrote in a tweet. “That committee hearing was a low point for Congress.” He also announced he had donated the maximum amount to the Democrat running to take his retiring father’s seat, Jennifer Lewis.

Even Josh Kushner, younger brother to White House utility man Jared Kushner, has been seen bucking familiar political solidarity. He was spotted at a March for Our Lives event and reportedly donated $50,000 to the anti-gun violence movement.

It’s hard to strategize a political response to a public rejection by your own nearest and dearest, but Gosar attempted to laugh it off.

“You can’t pick your family,” Gosar responded in a tweet in September. “We all have crazy aunts and relatives etc and my family is no different. I hope they find peace in their hearts and let go all the hate …”

Shortly after the midterms comes the Thanksgiving holiday, a time when many Americans start worrying about how to get through a turkey dinner without arguing about politics. Whether these candidates manage to get elected or not, their trips home for the holidays are likely to be especially fraught this year.

• This article was amended on 24 October 2018 because an earlier version referred to Paul Gosar as Arizona’s governor. This has been corrected.