In Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, a libertarian is running as a Republican to not only unseat a Democrat in Congress, but to help shape the party's post-Donald-Trump future. Will it work?
Drew Johnson grew up in Nashville but moved to the Las Vegas area in 2015. His libertarian bona fides go way back: He was raised in poverty by a single mother, who he says lied about their address so that he would be zoned into a better school district. He calls it his family's personal version of school choice, a subject he remains passionate about.
At age 24, he founded the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a free market think tank now known as the Beacon Center of Tennessee. His first claim to fame came in 2007, when he discovered, through open records requests, that former Vice President Al Gore's Tennessee home used 20 times more electricity than the national average, despite Gore's rhetoric about the importance of environmental stewardship.
Johnson has held fellowships at the Taxpayer Protection Alliance and the R Street Institute. He also served as the opinion editor for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and under his tenure, the paper endorsed Gary Johnson for president in 2012—which he tells Reason was "one of my prouder journalistic moments."
Now, he hopes that same pro-freedom, limited government agenda will win him a seat in Congress. And it's quite possible that he'll pull it off.
The Cook Political Report lists the congressional race in Nevada's 3rd as one of this cycle's most competitive. The outlet says the race "leans Democratic," in favor of incumbent Rep. Susie Lee, but that the district also leans slightly more Republican than the nation as a whole, picking Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a single percentage point in 2016. Lee won reelection in 2022 by only 4 points. With voters so evenly divided between two camps, the district is ripe for a candidate not neatly aligned with either party.
But despite touting his work over the years advocating an alternative to the two major parties, Johnson is running as a Republican. He prevailed in a primary field of seven total candidates, capturing 32 percent of the vote. Johnson tells Reason that he credits "one-on-one conversations, door-knocking," and old-fashioned "retail politics" for his success, as well as his platform's appeal to the district's independent streak.
He has also credited name recognition gained from his run for Clark County district commissioner in 2022, which he only lost by 336 votes, or four-tenths of a percentage point. "You had two guys who spent a million dollars plus on TV," he told The Nevada Independent. "We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars reaching out to voters individually."
Johnson evokes Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie, two Kentucky Republicans with libertarian streaks, as examples of what he would be like in Congress. And like Paul and Massie, Johnson is willing to play the political game when necessary.
For example, he is critical of tariffs. "I'm alarmed by new tariffs being considered at the Commerce Department," he wrote in a 2023 editorial for the Reno Gazette Journal. "If these new tariffs go into effect, Nevadans will soon face higher prices….American companies would pay the tariffs—and pass the costs on to consumers."
Trump, on the other hand, says "tariff" is "the most beautiful word in the dictionary." Yet Johnson endorsed the former president early, in January, pledging his support in both the general election and the Nevada Republican primary. (Trump reciprocated in August, offering Johnson "my Complete and Total Endorsement.")
Paul and Massie, notably, have not made presidential endorsements for the general election: Massie endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the Republican primary, while last month, Paul explained that while he is "persuadable," he is not ready to publicly endorse Trump.
For his part, Johnson says it was clear from early on that Trump would be the Republican nominee, so it made sense to get an endorsement out of the way. Besides, he notes, Kentucky is a reliably red state, whereas Nevada is purple: "If I can help President Trump here, then I'm happy to do it." He says that while Trump "isn't perfect…I can't think of anything Kamala [Harris] is right on."
Johnson allows that if both he and Trump are elected next month, he will happily and openly oppose the president's pursuit of policies that are incompatible with smaller government or individual liberty. "I won't be an obstructionist for the sake of being an obstructionist," he says. "But I'll never do something that isn't constitutional, wastes taxpayers' money, restricts personal freedom, or expands government."
And no matter who becomes the next president, Johnson says Republicans will need to have a "conversation" about what the party looks like in a post-Trump future. And he's running as a Republican, in part, because he wants a seat at the table when they do.
"I want to help lead the conversation about what the post-Trump Republican Party looks like," he says, in contrast to the "statist, populist, anti-free market" party it is today. "I want to be in a position to guide the Republican Party away from big government populism, away from social issues, and towards a more free market, limited government, fiscally responsible, and inclusive direction."
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