A Republican lawmaker from Nevada trying to take the Senate seat from the departing Harry Reid is standing by his decision to remove his public support of Donald Trump.
Rep. Joe Heck, who took office in the House in 2011, is in the midst of a tight Senate race with Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto. The Washington Examiner reports that Heck is abandoning Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, despite confusion that he was changing his mind.
Heck first said last weekend he would stop supporting Trump in the wake of sexually aggressive comments he made in 2005 that were released last week.
Heck's decision to separate himself from the party's presidential nominee is slightly risky, since Trump is just 1.4 percentage points behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in Nevada — one of several battleground states Trump needs to win. The strong base of Trump supporters could grow frustrated with Heck's decision and vote against him next month, the Examiner reports.
Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy, who represents Nevada's 4th district, also distanced himself from Trump last week amid his own reelection campaign.
"I think that when all is said and done that both men gave their races away with that announcement last weekend," Chuck Muth, a former Republican official from Nevada, told the Examiner.