According to the MAGA-first gatekeepers running the Washoe County GOP, the lifelong Republican who has been representing Northern Nevada in the U.S. House since 2011 is no longer welcome in the party.
What was the unforgivable transgression Republican Rep. Mark Amodei committed to earn such an excommunication from his political party? Well, he refused to get in line and support a carpetbagging, scandal-ridden candidate backed by the Trumpian sycophants who currently run the GOP's establishment.
For most casual observers, the county party's reaction probably seems like overkill. But it's not as if this is the first time the party has decided to "86" people from its Trump fan club for daring to express their personal opinions about candidates. (Wait, can we still use the term "86"?)
What the party doesn't seem to understand, however, is that such intolerance for dissent within its ranks is likely a big part of the reason it is currently facing such a difficult election season this year.
To be sure, incumbent parties rarely do well in midterm elections. However, the national chaos brought on by an erratic and overtly narcissistic president who is obsessed with renaming large bodies of water and building a European style "triumphal arch" certainly isn't helping.
Indeed, backlash to the Trump agenda ought to be easy to understand — even to those who may have supported his candidacy in 2024.
For starters, the campaign promises that helped propel Republicans into office that year have not only gone unfulfilled, but they've also been actively undermined by the Trump administration.
Far from deporting "the worst of the worst" criminal immigrants, the administration has been rounding up workers in Home Depot parking lots, arresting people who were dutifully attending immigration court and even deporting family members of U.S. military veterans.
Rather than bringing down inflation, the administration has imposed a tax-by-diktat tariff scheme that has increased prices on consumer goods — including goods manufactured here in the United States.
And far from ending so-called "forever wars" that upend daily life, the administration has decided to launch a military debacle in the Middle East that was so plainly illogical, even George W. Bush was wise enough to reject a similar plan during the heyday of the global war on terror.
Those are all unpopular betrayals of what helped get Republicans elected in 2024. However, the GOP's refusal to allow its own members to distance themselves in any way from such unpopular nonsense is poisoning the Republican brand far more than any single policy being pushed by the White House.
Over the last several years, the GOP has shown irrefutable disdain and intolerance for anyone who dares to veer from the MAGA-approved party line — turning the party, in the eyes of many voters, into a monolithic block of wannabe Trump clones. And, as a result, even good candidates in otherwise winnable races now find themselves holding their breath as decision day arrives in November.
Gov. Joe Lombardo might well be one of the most obvious local examples of someone being dragged down by his party's obsessive fealty to such an unpopular president. By all objective standards, Lombardo's re-election should have been a breeze — even in a midterm year that was always likely to be good for Democrats.
For starters, Lombardo has managed to keep his approval rating consistently above the 50 percent threshold for his entire first term. And despite the state's stubbornly high unemployment, other economic metrics — such as job growth and small-business growth — have surged under his watch. He even managed to advance such broadly bipartisan education policies that the Clark County Education Association (hardly an organization known for supporting Republicans) endorsed him for re-election.
As if that wasn't enough, his opponent has provided him with plenty of fodder for aggressive attack ads on issues that are likely to resonate with a great many undecided voters — including past votes to grant clemency to people convicted of murder.
And yet, despite these apparent advantages, Lombardo is still in a virtual dead heat with his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Aaron Ford.
The reason for Lombardo's difficulties isn't hard to understand. His biggest problem isn't his record, his likeability or even occasionally "leaked audio" from private events. Instead, it's that he has an "R" next to his name — and thanks to the party's utter descent into MAGA madness, the guilt-by-association that voters are likely to place on him puts his campaign in grave jeopardy.
What the dogmatically Trumpian apparatchiks of the Washoe County GOP don't realize is that their self-imposed purity test for membership in the Republican Party is precisely the type of forced conformity that is causing such consternation among candidates who might otherwise win their races.
The party's Trump-first approach toward partisan politicking has undeniably damaged its reputation among the nonpartisans, moderates and casual voters who are needed to win general elections. More importantly, it sends a message to voters that the GOP isn't a welcoming place for anyone capable of independent thought or divergent opinions.
And if that's truly the case, then maybe Amodei should be excommunicated from the party. Indeed, so too should any Republican who values their personal integrity enough to openly voice their dissent when they feel their party is doing things wrong.
However, if the Grand Old Party is going to limit its membership only to those who blindly indulge the cult of personality that has metastasized throughout its ranks, then being kicked out for insubordination should be considered nothing less than a true honor.
Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas and founder of Schaus Creative LLC, an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichael or on Substack @creativediscourse.
