Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

GOP strategist behind Nevada sweep gets national post

Updated Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 | 1:03 p.m.

When Republicans swept Nevada’s ballot in November, political insiders handed a big slice of credit to one man — Chris Carr.

Carr funded a nonprofit called Engage Nevada that, together with its Super PAC, registered about 30,000 new voters in the state, many of them conservative and many of them voting for the first time.

Insiders say Carr’s work helped push some close races in Nevada to the Republican side.

Now, Carr will have the chance to extend his political savvy to the rest of the nation.

The Republican National Committee — the group responsible for putting a Republican in the White House — announced Monday that Carr will lead its political department.

“I’m confident that with his record and his talents, Chris will deliver a political operation that will make all Republicans proud,” RNC Chair Reince Priebus said in a statement.

As national political director, Carr will focus on RNC’s data-driven voter targeting and getting voters to the polls across the country.

The announcement elevates someone familiar with Nevada’s piece in the national electoral puzzle to the national level. Nevada is a swing state that since 1908 has picked the winner of every presidential election except one.

“Chris Carr is one of the most talented and nicest people I’ve had the pleasure to work with, and the RNC could not have made a better hire,” said Jeremy Hughes of the political affairs firm November Inc.

Consultant Ryan Erwin of RedRock Strategies said Carr has proven himself for decades in Nevada as a high-level strategist also willing to roll up his sleeves.

"That combination of intelligence and work ethic makes him a unique talent," Erwin said.

Carr is a Louisiana native but has worked in Nevada politics for decades. He moved to Nevada right out of college to work on the 1992 Bush-Quayle campaign.

Most recently, Carr ran the RNC’s political operation in the West for the 2012 campaign.

In 2010, he ran political strategy in the West for the GOP’s House election committee. That year, House Republicans took back the majority from Democrats in what was the largest turnover in the chamber since 1948.

Engage Nevada will continue its work educating and registering conservative voters, with a focus on courting the Hispanic community.

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