An Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll of likely Republican primary voters in the race for US Senate in Nevada finds former Attorney General Adam Laxalt with 50% support, while 27% support Captain Sam Brown; 15% are undecided. Undecided voters were asked who they are leaning towards at this time. With undecided voters allocated, Laxalt extends his lead to 56%, and Brown to 31%.
A majority, 54%, of Republican primary voters say former President Donald Trump's endorsement makes them more likely to vote for a candidate, while 37% say it makes no difference, and 9% say it makes them less likely to vote for a candidate.
Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling said, “Laxalt has been endorsed by Trump, and he holds 63% support among those who say his endorsement makes them more likely to vote for candidate, whereas he trails Brown among those who say the former president’s endorsement makes them less likely to support a candidate, 28% to 18% and with voters who say the endorsement makes no difference, 41% to 39%.”
In the Republican primary for Governor, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo leads with 33% support. Attorney Joey Gilbert follows with 14%, and former US Senator Dean Heller has 11% support. No other candidates cleared double digits, and a quarter (25%) are undecided. Undecided voters were asked who they are leaning towards. When undecided voters were allocated, Lombardo increased his support to 39%, while Gilbert and Heller tied at 16% apiece.
Voters were asked if Donald Trump spends too much time talking about the 2020 elections, too little time talking about the 2020 election, or about the right amount of time talking about the 2020 election. A majority, 56%, of voters think that Donald Trump spends the right amount of time talking about 2020, whereas 33% think he spends too much time talking about 2020, and 11% think he spends too little time talking about 2020.
The economy is seen as the most important issue facing Nevada to the plurality, 45%, of Republican primary voters, followed by immigration with 20%. Other issues voters report include education at 12%, crime at 8%, and healthcare at 4%.
Regarding which gubernatorial candidate voters trust most to handle crime, Joe Lombardo holds 46% of voters’ trust, while 16% say Joey Gilbert, 11% John Lee, and 9% Dean Heller. Twelve percent (12%) are unsure.
Regarding who voters trust most to handle immigration among the Senate candidates, a majority (51%) of voters trust Adam Laxalt most while 26% trust Sam Brown; 14% are unsure.
Republican primary voters were asked if they trust national and local media to accurately cover politics and elections. Regarding national media, 87% of Republican primary voters say they do not trust national media to accurately cover politics and elections. Seven percent (7%) said they do trust it while 6% are unsure. Regarding local media, 69% say they do not trust it to accurately cover politics and elections, 14% do trust it, and 17% are unsure.
Caller ID
The Emerson College Polling Nevada poll was conducted April 30- May 2, 2022. The Republican primary sample consisted of somewhat and very likely voters, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, education, race, and region based on 2022 turnout modeling. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity, and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using a cellphone sample of SMS-to-web and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines.
