NEWS

GOP Sen. Heller still won't say who he's voting for

Seth A. Richardson
srichardson@rgj.com
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., talking to press on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. Heller said he was not ready to support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump just yet.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is still playing coy on who he will vote for on Nov. 8.

Heller is one of the few senators who outright refused to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump, but has also come out against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In August, he said he wanted to see if Trump showed improvement in the debates to decide if he would support him.

That comment was before recordings of Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women leaked to the public. After those recordings leaked, Heller said he was “100 percent against Clinton, 99 percent against Trump.”

When asked Thursday whether or not he had decided who he would vote for since the debates are over, Heller said he was focused on Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck’s race against Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto for U.S. Senate.

“I said in the past I was concerned with the GOP nominee’s candidacy,” Heller said in a statement. “My attention is focused on building a conservative majority in the House and to elect Joe Heck as Nevada’s next United States senator.”

Heck and U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy, R-Nev., both unendorsed Trump after the leaked recordings as well.

In the past, Heller has floated the idea of voting for "none of the above," a protest vote option that exists in Nevada.

Heller’s office did not respond to a question about whether or not he would release who he was voting for before the Nov. 8 election. Early voting starts Saturday in Nevada.