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Congressional candidate April Becker is looking beyond Tuesday's Republican primary in Nevada to the November election, where she says she's confident she'll beat Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev.
"The state's going to be flipped, it's just a very winnable state and I think that especially with the current environment, it's just kind of a known thing that we're going to win this seat back," Becker told Fox News Digital.
Becker is far ahead of the four other Republicans vying for the nomination in fundraising, and has the endorsement of the Nevada Republican Party and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. She said she's "very confident" of securing the nomination Tuesday. "I just keep trucking along, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do," she said.
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Beyond Tuesday, Becker believes voters in her district will reject incumbent Lee, who is seeking her fourth term, along with the Biden administration's policies. "She votes with Biden 100% of the time," Becker says of Lee.
"This as a very swing district, and I think people are fed up with what's going on and what they're seeing. People feel like they don't have a voice," Becker said.
Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, which extends south and west of Las Vegas to the California border, is rated as a toss up race by Cook Political Report. With Democrats across the nation facing headwinds due to spiking inflation, crime and Biden's sinking approval ratings, Becker is confident her district will be among those that flip red.
Lee has been on the defensive for months, and in March touted the economic recovery in Nevada. "Two years ago, we had an unemployment rate of 34%," Lee told the Nevada Independent. "Today, I think we're hovering around 6%. We have an unprecedented number of new business starts in our state … there was no prediction that in 2021, anything like that would have happened."
On concerns of increasing crime in Las Vegas, Lee has stressed that she is not opposed to law enforcement and rejects calls from the progressive wing of her party to gut police budgets.
Rep. Susie Lee speaks during the news conference outside the Capitol on May 12, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"I always open these up and say I do not want to defund the police, and in fact have voted multiple times to increase funding to police departments," Lee told representatives of law enforcement recently, the Washington Post reported this week.
In Becker's analysis, however, Nevada voters – and people across the country – will likely vote based on the pain in their pocket books regardless of political messaging.
"There are a lot of people who don't pay attention to politics, but when it comes to putting gas in their tank, everybody has to do that, everybody has to buy groceries," she said.
"We have Susie Lee on video acknowledging prices going up, but she wasn't going to apologize for it. That pretty much encapsulates exactly what her attitude is, and I think people are seeing it, and they're just fed up with it," she added.
Becker says she never desired a career in politics, but she got fed up with the politicians representing her. She ran for a state Senate seat in 2020 and narrowly lost, but the current race is tilted in her favor.
Nevada House candidate April Becker says she is confident she can beat incumbent Susie Lee. (Winning for Women)
"I never really planned on doing this. I'm 51 years old, my youngest just graduated high school, my husband is ready to start traveling – but I just felt that if I didn't step up, who's going to?" she said.
Becker, a real estate attorney, has done pro bono legal work that she says kept people from losing their houses.
"I always compare politicians to attorneys because most attorneys don't care. They do their jobs, they do their jobs well, but they're not passionate about it. I feel the same way about politicians. They go through the motions, but maybe they've become jaded."
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Becker says she's convinced that "when Republicans are in charge, Americans' lives are better," and with Democrats in power during a nationwide slump, voters are likely to express disapproval at the polls. But what Republicans do once in power is another matter.
"I think the biggest thing is to stop spending money we don't have," Becker said when asked what Congress should do to fight inflation.
Republican candidate for U.S. Congress April Becker poses in the window of her campaign van, a converted ice cream truck, in Las Vegas on May 29, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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"I think a lot of programs need to be audited. There are automatic increases, and I just don't agree with that. As a family, when you can't afford to live what you're living and spending, you have to step back and re-evaluate your budget. This is the same concept, just on a much larger scale."
Focusing on other issues, particularly protecting abortion access in Roe v. Wade and passing gun control, Becker said are "red herrings" pushed by Democrats to "take the public's focus away from the economy and what they've done to crush the economy."
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"If candidates focus on what's important to the people of this country, they will manage to glide through this election," she said.
If Republicans don't act, they'll get the boot, she said.
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