Armand Jackson

With Nevada’s general election taking place in a few months, more focus will be on the winners of the recent primary elections. Adam Laxalt, who co-chaired Donald Trump’s Nevada re-election campaign and helped lead efforts in state and federal courts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, won Nevada’s GOP primary. He will face incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto on November 8th to be the state’s next U.S. Senator. In early July, Laxalt recently appointed Courtney Holland, a political conservative who marched to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as his campaign’s new communications director. Her appointment was to replace John Burke, the former communications director for Adam Laxalt’s campaign.

Courtney Holland, another promoter of Donald Trump’s 2020 election claims, has continued to attend rallies for former President Trump as a guest speaker, including the “Stop the Steal” protest that escalated into the riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Holland marched to the Capitol that day and was spotted marching alongside members of the extremist Oath Keepers group. According to the Anti-Defamation League, The Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of right-wing anti-government extremists who focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement, and first responders. The group is part of the larger militia movement that believes the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.

The two members of the group that Holland was spotted with leading up to the attack on the Capitol were Kenneth Harrelson and Jason Dolan. Harrelson and other individuals affiliated with the Oath Keepers were charged by the Department of Justice for seditious conspiracy and other offenses, while Dalon was charged with breaking into the Capitol. Holland herself however, has not been formally charged and currently there is no evidence that she entered the Capitol building herself. She stated that she has never been subpoenaed, questioned or accused of any wrongdoing in connection to her involvement in the insurrection. 

Regardless, her involvement in Jan. 6 has upset Nevada officials who have called on Laxalt to fire her and apologize to law enforcement for making her his new campaign communications director given many officers were injured, lost their lives, or committed suicide as a result of the trauma they endured that day. Clark County Juvenile Probation Supervisor, Matt Richardson stated: “When we become law enforcement officers, the first thing they have us do is take an oath to protect the U.S. from enemies foreign and domestic,” he said. “That day, the insurrectionists became enemies of the United States. So it’s our duty to protect the United States from enemies. That day, she was a part of the enemy.”