These Dems are running for a top office. So what are they doing in the middle of Nevada? Lesser-known progressives ditch the city for final campaign push

James DeHaven | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Here are the top candidates running for U.S. Senate The primary election is on June 12.

Hot dogs, espresso and barbeque.

That’s the relatively unsexy stuff down-ballot Democratic campaigns were made of on Friday night in Fernley, where four candidates seeking some of the state’s less-glamorous offices ate, drank and laughed their way through the first stop on a three-day tour of rural Nevada.

None of the top Democratic hopefuls for attorney general, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state face a tough primary election opponent. Their eight-stop weekend sweep across small businesses from Austin to West Wendover was more about staying on voters’ radar amid a barrage of ads and mailers from higher-profile candidates.

Still, it wasn’t the most typical approach to campaigning for one of Nevada’s six constitutional offices.

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Candidates for those statewide jobs are more often seen at big, stage-managed campaign events — ideally headlined by a flashier politician with a face voters recognize from a billboard.

But Democrats, who have so far enjoyed a relatively strong showing at early voting locations, wanted to try something different this year.

“We decided to do all the down-ballots together, to make people come out to see the entire ticket,” said Andrew Whitley, campaign manager for Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Kate Marshall. “So we decided to kind of do this barnstorm of the state. Also, ideally, they’ll all be serving with each other, so it’s good to have a good relationship from the get-go.”

Their tour started, appropriately enough, on Fernley's Main Street, at Yvonne’s Hot Dogs, the new brick-and-mortar restaurant that was once a hot dog stand run by Yvonne Minix.

Minix, a former Amazon employee, epitomized the entrepreneurial spirit Zach Conine said he wants to bring to the treasurer’s office.

The Las Vegas-based business consultant bemoaned the spotlight cast on the arrival of Amazon and other major tech companies in Nevada, even as smaller businesses continue to serve as the state’s economic engine.

“For every Faraday Future debacle, there’s thousands of Yvonne’s,” Conine said, contrasting Minix’s business with the Chinese-backed electric car company that nearly bilked the state out of $335 million in tax incentives to build a $1 billion factory in North Las Vegas. “The question is, how do we make the pie bigger for everyone?”

Minutes later, in the shade provided a few blocks east at recently opened Broeder’s Espresso, lieutenant governor hopeful Kate Marshall was also thinking about small businesses.

The ex-Treasurer and former secretary of state candidate noted that tourism and economic development duties accounted for much of the work assigned to the lieutenant governor under Nevada’s constitution.

With that, she sought to dismiss likely Republican opponent Michael Roberson’s immigration-focused bid for the seat.

Roberson, the Republican state Senate leader, has spearheaded a long-litigated campaign to ban so-called “sanctuary cities” via a statewide ballot initiative, an effort Marshall characterized as little more than a political stunt.

“The truth of the matter is the lieutenant governor’s job is about the economy, it’s about economic development,” Marshall said. “The one place we haven’t talked about is the kitchen table. You need to talk about what the people of this state are talking about when they sit down at the table to pay their bills.”

State Sen. Majority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, took a swipe of his own at the sanctuary cities proposal, pointing out that Nevada is not currently home to any communities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“The only people providing sanctuary in this state now are Republicans providing sanctuary to Sheriff (Gerald) Antinoro,” the attorney general hopeful said, referring to the embattled Storey County lawman who faces several well-documented sexual misconduct allegations.

Wes Duncan, considered the GOP favorite for the attorney general’s seat, has come under fire for not disavowing Antinoro’s endorsement. Duncan, a former Clark County prosecutor who has positioned himself as the race’s tough-on-crime candidate, called allegations against the sheriff “troubling” in a Monday interview with the Nevada Independent.

Ford, who has built his campaign platform around anti-sexual harassment measures, said there were plenty of differences between how he and Duncan would approach the state’s top law enforcement job.

“You’re going to see me focus on consumer protection,” Ford said. “You’re going to see me focus on public safety to ensure we have a fair criminal justice system. You’re going to see me focusing on sexual harassment in the workplace.”

Friday’s tour came the day after online news outlet FiveThirtyEight published a story alleging cybersecurity weaknesses discovered in Nevada's election system by an outside tech consulting firm.

The Nevada Secretary of State’s office flatly disputed the claim, writing in a statement to the Reno Gazette Journal that there was no connection between the reported online security flaws and the election systems now in use by the state.

Nelson Araujo, the two-term Las Vegas Assemblyman running an election security-focused campaign for secretary of state, said he hadn’t read the article, though he doesn’t doubt Nevada could do more to shore up its election system amid ongoing fears over a Russian campaign to meddle in U.S. elections.

He credited state lawmakers, including Ford, for setting aside millions of dollars for new voting machines during the 2017 Legislature.

“I think we’re seeing all the real threats being posed to our election system and it’s important for us to be well ahead of those threats in terms of cybersecurity efforts,” Araujo said.

He and his colleagues were soon off to Fallon for a barbecue hosted by Churchill County Democrats. They stopped off in Austin, Eureka, Ely and Wendover on Saturday, before looping back to Elko and Winnemucca on Sunday afternoon.

Araujo does not have a primary election opponent. He’ll likely face Republican incumbent Barbara Cegavske in November’s general election.

Conine will face a Southern Nevadan Republican — either former Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Beers or ex-Henderson City Council hopeful Derek Uehara — this fall.