Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) Republican primary opponent Danny Tarkanian launched an attack against the incumbent senator that focuses on his ties to first daughter Ivanka Trump.
Tarkanian, 56, unveiled the attack Wednesday during an interview with local KBET radio host Kevin Wall, focusing on the first daughter’s politics in an effort to characterize Heller as liberal.
“Dean Heller’s saying that he talks to Trump on the phone all the time,” Tarkanian said. “Well, Ivanka Trump was a Democrat, and she’s very, very moderate to liberal, compared to the Republican base.”
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Tarkanian later said in a statement to CNN that he “did not say nor mean to infer a relationship with Ivanka is a bad thing. It is a good thing. She is the daughter of the president.”
But he added that Ivanka Trump “is a registered Democrat and more moderate than the GOP base, which means her political views are probably similar to Heller’s views, because he is a moderate to liberal.”
Ivanka Trump, 36, referred to herself as a political independent in 2016. She serves as an unpaid senior adviser to President Trump in the White House.
Tarkanian has painted Heller, 57, as an establishment Republican, tying him to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Heller faces an uphill battle in the upcoming midterm elections. He drew the ire of the president last year when he publicly opposed the Republican ObamaCare repeal effort.
President Trump singled out Heller during a White House summit last year, joking he thought Heller would vote for ObamaCare legislation because “he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?”