Populist GOP candidate drops campaign after Trump tweet

By Yaron Steinbuch
March 16, 2018 | 3:06pm | Updated

A Republican running a populist campaign to unseat a GOP senator in Nevada ditched his bid Friday after a tweeted entreaty from President Trump.

“It would be great for the Republican Party of Nevada, and it’s (sic) unity if good guy Danny Tarkanian would run for Congress and Dean Heller, who is doing a really good job, could run for Senate unopposed!” the president tweeted.

Tarkanian told the Reno Gazette Journal that Trump had already asked him to bail out of the GOP primary race with Heller and pursue the House seat left open by Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is running as Heller’s top Democratic foe in the Senate race.

“I am confident I would have won the US Senate race and done a great job representing the people of Nevada in the Senate, but the president is adamant that a unified Republican ticket in Nevada is the best direction for the America First movement,” Tarkanian said in a statement.

“With President Trump’s full support and endorsement, I am filing to run again in (Congressional District 3) with the firm belief that we will finish what we started in 2016 and win in 2018,” he added.

He told the Gazette Journal that he regretted telling the Nevada Independent earlier that there was “zero chance under any circumstances” that he would run for the House seat.

“I argued with them, but (the president) felt otherwise,” Tarkanian, son of famed UNLV hoops coach Jerry Tarkanian, said of the decision.

The pro-Trump Las Vegas businessman narrowly lost his 2016 bid to win Nevada’s battleground 3rd Congressional District.

Trump has privately said he’d campaign for Heller, who has become his loyal foot soldier ever since he won the 2016 election, according to Talking Points Memo.

Tarkanian announced a primary challenge last year after Heller couldn’t decide whether to support a Trump-backed GOP health care overhaul.

“We’re never going to make America great again unless we have senators in office supporting President Trump,” he said on Fox News Channel in announcing his run, the Washington Post reported.

https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/populi...r-trump-tweet/