GOP strategist peels back the curtain

By Amber Phillips

Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014 | 2 a.m.

Ryan Erwin isn’t used to the spotlight.

The president of RedRock Strategies, a Las Vegas media and political consulting company, typically remains behind the scenes of Republican campaigns.

He has helped Rep. Joe Heck win re-election three times in a Southern Nevada swing district. And Erwin, the former head of the GOP in Nevada and California, is credited with masterminding Cresent Hardy’s upset of Rep. Steven Horsford in November.

Outside of politics, Erwin’s firm has worked with more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies and lobbied for ballot initiatives across the country.

After a historically successful election cycle for Republicans, Erwin spoke about his role and the party’s future.

You’re described as a “Republican strategist.” What actually do you do all day?

That’s such a good question and so difficult to answer. On the campaign side, our job is to provide the overarching strategy for candidates. And then we do everything from rapid response to crisis management to keeping all the campaign pieces running on time and on budget.

Do you recruit candidates?

Sometimes. I would say every election cycle, we do end up recruiting several candidates to run for key positions.

I made a decision a long time ago that candidates whom we work for need to be the right kind of people in the right place at the right time. But they also have to have values similar to ours. So sometimes, you have to go out and look for somebody who fits that model.

What type of person makes a good candidate?

You want somebody who has a core. We are not a company that is ideologically driven. We are common-value driven. That means good people who want to go good things.

While we’ve worked only with Republican candidates, we’ve had relationships on both sides. There is a long list of people active in politics inside Nevada and out who would probably say we do good work, even if they’ve been on the other side and in a fight with us.

You’ve been credited with being one of the only people who foresaw Hardy’s win over Horsford.

I’m uncomfortable with credit. The reality of politics is good candidates can lose with bad campaigns, but it’s really hard to elect a bad candidate, even with a good campaign.

Cresent Hardy deserves the credit for that victory. He had, at every turn, the opportunity to mail it in or say, “This is too hard.” Cresent Hardy woke up every day and did what he was supposed to do, like knocking on an unprecedented number of doors.

How much of Nevada Republicans’ victory this November can be attributed to the mood of the country?

It’s so important. We talk a lot with our candidates about the idea of knowing when to put up the sail and catch the wind and knowing when to take the sail down and paddle like crazy upstream. Cresent Hardy would not have won this cycle in a Democratic wave. It just wouldn’t have happened. We needed the wind at our back to be able to put the sail up to get us across the finish line.

What will RedRock Strategies’ role be in 2016, specifically in regards to Sen. Harry Reid’s re-election campaign?

Anybody who is involved in politics, like I am, will be drawn to a battle like a moth to a flame.

I think 2016 is going to be a fascinating year in Nevada. Some quality candidate will run against Harry Reid, and it will likely be the most expensive U.S. Senate race in Nevada history, and arguably the one with the most long-lasting implications for the state.