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The Trump Ambassador Who Wants to Run for Nevada Senate on His Record of Retweets

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The Trump Ambassador Who Wants to Run for Nevada Senate on His Record of Retweets


Jeffrey Ross Gunter’s year-and-a-half tenure as U.S. ambassador to Iceland under Donald Trump was, by many accounts, a chaotic mess.

The wealthy dermatologist and GOP donor—who’d never been to Iceland before being confirmed to the post—churned through staff, lashed out at employees, demanded a gun and armed security guards in the world’s safest country, and tried to do the job remotely in California during the pandemic, according to a bombshell CBS News report.

A subsequent report on Gunter by the State Department’s Inspector General found that he threatened to sue embassy employees he perceived as enemies, and alleged that Washington was so disturbed over the situation that it instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to work directly with Icelandic officials, bypassing Gunter.

Now, Gunter wants to add an even bigger job to his résumé: U.S. senator.

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Gunter has indicated to multiple Republican operatives that he plans to challenge Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) in the competitive battleground of Nevada next year, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

It’s unclear when exactly Gunter might launch a campaign, but there’s already a world in which Gunter has spun his disastrous tenure in Reykjavik as a smashing success: a webpage he created to list his “triumphs” as ambassador.

All 122 of them, to be exact.

The first accomplishment is a legitimate one: Gunter oversaw the completion of a new U.S. embassy in Reykjavik during his tenure. But from there, he often measures his diplomatic success more in retweets from Donald Trump and social media view counts than anything else.

On his website, Gunter’s sixth-rated accomplishment is posting a “congratulatory tweet on President Trump’s historic brokering of the Abraham Accords,” which drew “unprecedented engagement” and “stands as Ambassador Gunter and Embassy Reykjavik’s most reacted-to tweet.”

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“It was retweeted,” the website notes, “by the President of the United States.”

Gunter’s fifth accomplishment is a July 4th Facebook video he recorded, which purportedly “offered a simple but impactful message of patriotism, shared democratic values, and the deep connection between the United States and Iceland. Reaching over 171,000 people, viewership of this video far eclipsed any other social media post in the history of U.S. Embassy Reykjavik.”

At 80 on the list was Gunter’s creation of “three Facebook videos to inspire people during the COVID-19 pandemic,” which created solidarity between the United States and Icelandic people and inspired many in these difficult times.”

Notably, the reporting on Gunter’s tenure as ambassador revealed his obsession with social media, which was so acute that he would spend hours with embassy staff crafting a single tweet.

Gunter also gives himself credit for performing the most basic duties of an overseas diplomat, like processing passport requests, hosting U.S. officials, and communicating with his Icelandic counterparts. One accomplishment was simply welcoming the Icelandic foreign minister to the embassy. Notably, U.S. citizens in Iceland, and some Icelanders, bristled at Gunter’s performance, with some calling for him to be recalled.

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Another Gunter accomplishment: starting a “tradition of ‘light lunches.’”

“Initially launched during the long, dark winters, these lunches (and sometimes breakfasts) continued through the summer, as the COVID pandemic threatened both the community and peoples’ sense of community,” the site reads. “Taking care of the team is key to leadership.”

That line may ring hollow to Gunter’s former team. In his tenure, the ambassador burned through seven deputy chiefs of mission—the top diplomat in an embassy other than the ambassador—firing one simply because he didn’t “like the look of him,” according to CBS News. He also once chewed out a staffer for keeping snow boots under their desk in the Icelandic winter.

The former ambassador’s list of self-identified accomplishments—and the failures he conspicuously omitted from it—is a good encapsulation of why Gunter is not exactly a top-tier recruit for Republicans.

Gunter did not respond to a request for comment through his website.

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In Nevada, Republicans will need a strong challenger to Rosen in 2024. Last year’s race between Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and Adam Laxalt (R) was the closest Senate contest of the cycle, decided by just 8,000 votes. National Republicans have been anxious to claw back a seat in Nevada, and a victory there could easily tip the Senate majority their way.

According to the Nevada Independent, GOP brass has been recruiting Sam Brown, a retired U.S. Army Captain and Purple Heart recipient who unsuccessfully ran for the party nomination in the 2022 Senate race.

The leading declared candidate in the race, Jim Marchant, also worries many Republicans. A far-right former state legislator who lost a bid for Nevada Secretary of State last year, Marchant vocally denied the outcome of the 2020 election and has close links to key figures in the QAnon conspiracy movement.

In a crowded primary field, however, Gunter’s ability to fund his campaign through his own wealth could make him a formidable candidate. A dermatologist by training, he founded national skin clinic chains, with locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas. He has been a prolific donor to Republican campaigns and causes, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to them over the years.

That giving is likely what landed Gunter a coveted ambassadorship in the northernmost capital of the world. He donated $100,000 to a super PAC supporting Trump’s 2016 campaign, and donated another $100,000 to Trump’s inaugural celebration. While it’s common for presidents to award certain ambassador posts to donors, Trump nominated an unusually high number of political, non-diplomatic appointees to ambassadorships, particularly those who gave lavishly to his inaugural committee.

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But Gunter’s potential Senate bid could be tripped up by ties to the GOP that aren’t totally rock-solid—and ties to his adopted home state that appear flimsy.

For one, he appears to be registered to vote in two different states and with two different parties. In 2021, Gunter registered as a Republican in Nevada, according to voting records reviewed by The Daily Beast. But since 2000, he has been registered to vote as a Democrat in California, which has long been his home state.

Gunter went to high school and college in Berkeley, studied medicine in Los Angeles, and built his dermatology business in the city of Lancaster, just outside of Los Angeles. He has owned property in Nevada since 2007 and owns a home in the town of Pahrump, an hour west of Las Vegas on the border with California.

Gunter’s web site states that he resides in Nevada. But in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Gunter wanted to work in California rather than return to Iceland, CBS News reported, and would not do so unless then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered him to. (Pompeo eventually did.)

While the majority of Nevada residents are originally from elsewhere, Marchant has lived in the state since 2005 and Brown has lived there since 2018, though he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Texas legislature in 2014.

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According to the voter records, Gunter last voted in 2018, in California. There is no record of him voting in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.

In 2022, an election year in which Nevada could have tipped the Senate majority to Republicans, Gunter requested an absentee ballot—from California—but apparently did not return it.

While Gunter gave over $10,000 to committees supporting Laxalt, the 2022 Senate nominee, and $5,000 to the state GOP, he appears to have not cast a vote in an election Laxalt ultimately lost by fewer than 8,000 votes.

Ironically, the 94th accomplishment from Gunter’s ambassadorship touts his efforts to help U.S. citizens in Iceland exercise their rights to vote.

Gunter, his list of accomplishments reads, “helped Americans to register to vote and cast their ballots in the 2020 U.S. elections.”

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“Helping Americans in Iceland is a core part of the work of the Embassy and helping them participate in these important elections is an honor and pleasure,” it said.



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Nevada

Legislative majorities giving one party all the power are in play in several states, including Nevada

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Legislative majorities giving one party all the power are in play in several states, including Nevada


SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — After introducing herself at their front doors, Vanessa Vaughn West began her pitch to voters with a question: What issues are important to you? She heard frustration about rising local property taxes, a desire for smaller government and questions about affordable housing.

West is a Democrat making her second run for a Kansas House seat representing a western Kansas City neighborhood where Republicans have held sway since the construction of homes began in the late 1990s.

Despite that history, West’s race against Republican state Rep. Angela Stiens is on the national Democratic Party’s radar, as is the Kansas Legislature. Democrats need to gain just two seats in the 125-member House or three in the 40-member Senate to break a supermajority that has enabled Republicans to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of measures restricting abortion providers and transgender rights.

A similar battle is playing out in North Carolina, where the flip of a single seat in either the House or Senate could cost Republicans a veto-proof majority that has repeatedly imposed its will over the objections of a Democratic governor. In Nevada, meanwhile, it’s Democrats who stand to gain a veto-proof majority over a Republican governor, if they can pick up just one more state Senate seat without losing one in the Assembly.

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Nationwide, more than 5,800 state legislative seats in 44 states are up for election this year in the background of higher profile contests for president, Congress and governor. Groups aligned with Democrats and Republicans are expected to pour a couple hundred million dollars into the state legislative battles, focusing most intensely on states where control of a chamber is in play: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

But they also are paying attention to some states where there is little doubt about which party will prevail, because there is still plenty at stake.

The Associated Press identified 14 states where a swing of just three or fewer seats could determine whether a party holds a supermajority, meaning a margin so dominant that a party is able to enact laws despite a governor’s veto, convene special sessions or place constitutional amendments on the ballot without needing any support from lawmakers of an opposing party.

“Having a party in power is really important — the most import thing,” said Wesley Hussey, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento. But “having a supermajority can give you additional tools to enact policy.”

GOP districts in Kansas draw Democrats’ attention

In Kansas, Stiens was appointed to fill a House vacancy this spring in time to help override Kelly’s veto of a bill requiring abortion providers to ask patients why they want to end their pregnancies and submit that data to the state health department. The law isn’t being enforced amid legal challenges.

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But West said the Legislature’s continued push for restrictions on abortion providers is one reason she is running against Stiens, just two years after narrowly losing to Stiens’ predecessor. West strongly supports abortion rights and residents in her home of Johnson County voted by nearly 69% in favor of abortion rights during a decisive 2022 statewide vote.

“This is why we need parity, right?” West said as she walked from home to home talking to prospective voters. “And this is why we need support for what I would call the voice of the people — making sure that when the people vote on things like that, that we as legislators reinforce those sentiments with our votes.”

Though still leaning Republican and largely white, the Kansas City suburbs have become more racially diverse and friendlier to Democrats since former President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. But national Democrats also are targeting a portion of southwestern Topeka, a longtime Republican area where GOP state Rep. Jesse Borjon is seeking a third term against Democrat Jacquie Lightcap, a local school board member.

Campaigning door-to-door recently in a neighborhood of late-1980s homes with three-car garages, Borjon emphasized his support for public schools and tax cuts enacted this year. His vote for eliminating the state income tax on Social Security benefits resonated with Bob Schmidt, a retired computer company executive who chatted with Borjon about rising property taxes.

Regardless of party label, Schmidt said he wants a representative who will “maintain conservative values.”

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A change of one seat could affect North Carolina laws

North Carolina provides a clear example of how legislative supermajorities can affect laws.

When North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham switched from the Democratic to Republican party in 2023, it gave Republicans the final seat they needed to obtain a veto-proof majority in both legislative chambers. Republicans quickly flexed their new powers to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of legislation barring most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Republicans have since enacted two dozen additional laws by overriding Cooper’s vetoes, including ones weakening the governor’s election oversight, restricting medical treatments and sports activities for transgender youths and limiting school lessons about gender identity in early grades.

“Republicans have been easily overriding his vetoes and basically putting their stamp on the state in terms of public policies,” said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Though Cooper is term-limited, Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is leading in the race to replace him. That makes it critical for Republicans to retain a supermajority, “or else they have to deal with the governor,” Bitzer said.

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Supermajorities are at their highest point in decades

The number of states with legislative supermajorities is at its highest level since at least 1982, according to research by Saint Louis University political scientist Steven Rogers. Democrats hold nine veto-proof majorities. But Republicans hold 20, including in Nebraska, where the single-chamber Legislature is officially nonpartisan but two-thirds of members identify as Republicans.

Democrats need a gain of three or fewer seats this election to break Republican supermajorities in Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and North Carolina while a similar flip for Republicans could end Democratic supermajorities in Delaware and New York.

Meanwhile, a gain of three or fewer seats could create new supermajorities for Republicans in Iowa and South Carolina and for Democrats in Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada and New Mexico.

But gaining a supermajority is no guarantee legislative leaders will always get their way.

Democrats dominate in California. Yet Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed numerous bills, none of which have been overridden by the Democratic legislative supermajority. The legislature also has at times failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to pass tax increases.

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In Missouri, where Republicans hold a supermajority, a conservative Senate faction has repeatedly clashed with GOP leadership. Ultimately, Republicans mired in tensions have failed to pass some of their own priority measures.

“Having a veto-proof majority can matter,” said Ben Williams, associate director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures. But “the larger a legislative majority gets, the more factions you get within that majority, and sometimes they don’t necessarily agree.”

___

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

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9 takeaways from Oregon State football’s loss at Nevada

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9 takeaways from Oregon State football’s loss at Nevada


RENO — The Oregon State Beavers suffered a 42-37 loss to the Nevada Wolf Pack Saturday at Mackay Stadium in Reno. The loss ended a two-game winning streak and dropped the Beavers to 4-2 on the season. Here are nine takeaways from the victory:

1. Injuries could derail season

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Oregon State Beavers Fall In Reno To Nevada Wolf Pack – Game Highlights | Daily Tidings

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Oregon State Beavers Fall In Reno To Nevada Wolf Pack – Game Highlights | Daily Tidings





Oregon State Beavers Fall In Reno To Nevada Wolf Pack – Game Highlights | Daily Tidings



















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