A political reporter in Nevada for more than 30 years, you may have seen him on NBC, Fox News, and right here on PBS.

Jon Ralston, CEO of The Nevada Independent , joins us this week for Nevada Week In Person .

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person .

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

A job as a night side police reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal is what brought him to Southern Nevada in 1984.

But within two years, he'd find himself covering politics.

More than three decades later, he's one of the most important political pundits in the state and known across the country.

Jon Ralston, thank you for joining us-- -Thanks for having me.

- --for Nevada Week In Person .

-Thank you.

-Well, we are coming off the 2022 Midterm Elections in which you correctly picked 9 of the 10 competitive congressional and statewide races.

Prior to making your picks though, you said, quote, This was the most puzzling and difficult year since you began making picks.

Why "most puzzling and difficult"?

-Because it was one of those years where it's a midterm, and they're always lower turnout elections.

They're harder to predict.

And it was one where you had all these countervailing forces going back and forth.

You had the Democratic machine, which is always formidable, but you had Republicans who were running good campaigns and who were taking advantage of Joe Biden's low approval ratings here and the high gas prices, inflation, all the rest.

And so all the polls showed the top two races, which are the hardest ones to predict for Governor and Senate.

And so I just, I couldn't get out of doing it, Amber.

I've done it for so long.

What was my excuse for not doing it?

And so I just-- I just analyzed all the data, talked to sources, and then I went to where I always go, which is my gut, and made those predictions.

-And you were right in those top two races.

-Keep saying that.

-In your 30 years covering politics, what has changed?

And one example I would like to note is that there's a lack of debates it seems.

Your outlet was the only in Nevada to secure a debate between Governor Sisolak and now Governor-elect Lombardo.

What else is changed?

-Well, as someone on TV, it's got to be-- You understand this is frustrating that people just don't pay as close attention as they should.

And you know, debates are a great venue to really reveal not just what a candidate knows about issues, but perhaps their character, their ability to think on their feet.

I think there's no better place than when you have them captive for half an hour or an hour.

And so they don't want to do that, right?

They want their ads to speak for themselves.

They want their digital social media stuff to speak for them.

They don't want it filtered through someone like you or like me, right?

And so I mean, Adam Laxalt ran for Governor and ran for Senate without ever having to debate his opponent.

Now, he lost both those races, but I don't think it's because he didn't debate.

And so listen, I thought we were lucky to get the gubernatorial debate, and it worked out great.

And we got them to sit there for 90 minutes, and I thought it was revealing in many ways.

Did it have any effect on the outcome?

I don't know.

-When did that start, that people pulled back from doing debates, did you notice?

-Well, I think it's generally candidates who don't feel that it's to their advantage to debate will do it.

The pressure doesn't exist as much as it did when there's only a few media outlets.

There's the three networks and maybe a couple newspapers.

Now there's so many of them, and so they can kind of pick and choose where they want to appear.

They might not want Amber Renee Dixon to ask them questions, because you'll ask them real questions.

They want to go to a friendly venue, and especially with the advent of cable news and the rest of it.

They feel that they don't have to do it.

And again, they don't want a filter.

They want to present whatever their case is without being called on it.

-Without being challenged about it.

-Yeah.

-In your intro, I debated whether I should put that you lean democratic, or should I have just put that you're a Democrat?

-I am not a Democrat; I'm an independent.

I've always been an independent.

I get a hard time for this all the time.

Actually, the people that have been the maddest at me my entire career are the far left, because I wrote some really negative stuff about the Bernie Sanders folks and what they did at the Democratic Convention in 2016.

And believe me, they're much more vicious than anyone on the far right.

People think I lean left, which is fine.

People think sometimes more left than I actually am.

-So you don't resent that then?

-Here's what I resent: I resent the notion that based on what my work shows that I can't be fair, that I can't be objective, and that my opinions are formed outside of whatever etiology people think that I have.

And I've gone after people who are Democrats, I've gone after people who are Republican.

But it doesn't really bother me that much.

I mean, if I don't have a thick skin after, what did you say at the beginning, 30 years plus, I'll never have one right?

-Yeah.

Coming up on 40 years.

-Will you stop?

-I'm sorry.

Okay, so you are somewhat polarizing and frustrating to some, as you noticed, or noted, including a guy recently on Twitter who tweeted at you, quote, You're one of the few individuals on the planet that I simultaneously respect and deeply despise.

And your response was, shrug shoulders.

What do you think of that comment and your effect on people?

-Listen, I tend to be, as Rachel Maddow said about me on the air the other night, "blunt spoken."

And sometimes people don't like that, right?

And I can have very strong opinions about things.

And I can be kind of snarky and kind of obnoxious at times.

Not that I will be doing this interview at all, I promise.

But you know, listen, I focus on the respect part of that, right?

I'm not in this to be loved.

I hope some people love me, but I want people to respect what I do.

And so nothing else that he wrote bothered me at all.

-There was an appetite for snark, though.

-I think there is, and I think especially when people are just too serious, especially in an arena like politics, right, where people just are so often humorless.

And that's the biggest problem on something like Twitter; people don't get humor, there's no sarcasm font, and I'm not going to let people know that I'm being sarcastic.

So listen, I think Twitter is the perfect place for snark.

-I love when you put pictures of your dog waiting on election results, or-- -Ace became an Internet superstar, right, during the election.

-And what was it that you said about Ace and what Nevada Democrats had to do with getting some of the Democrats reelected?

-Yeah, I think I said that-- It was something about Ace doing something.

Ace had a better chance of doing something than they did, or something.

I forget what it was.

It was funny at the time.

I can't remember.

I'm sorry.

-Showing that you are hard on the left as well.

-I definitely am.

-It was something to the effect of, My dog did more for the Democrats to get reelected than-- -That was about the Democratic Party.

-Yes.

-Yeah, the amateurs that took over the Democratic Party, they were the far left.

They were very mad at me for that kind of commentary.

-I do want to get a little bit serious.

You also correctly predicted that all three ballot questions would pass.

And among them, Question 1 adds new language to the Constitution in Nevada, guaranteeing that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.

That question has personal significance to you.

How so?

-What has personal significance to me is the campaign that was run against it by some, which was a very transphobic campaign and the implication that this was gonna, you know, allow boys in girls locker rooms, and all the scare tactics.

I have a trans son, and I love my son more than I can possibly love anyone in the world, Amber, and I see what he's been through.

And people-- It's mostly ignorance.

People don't understand the transgender movement.

They don't understand what's happening.

But the fact that some candidates try to use that as a wedge issue is very, very offensive to me.

And it's hurtful in a very deeply personal way.

-I would imagine.

When you came out about this with your son, that was 2016, I believe.

What had he done that year, which was so incredible?

-So I told my son, and he told me he was gonna get his name changed.

He was born Madeline, and he changed his name to Jake.

And I said, when you do that, because he didn't want me to talk about it publicly.

-He didn't.

-He didn't.

And he said, When I get my name changed, I want you to write about it.

And so he called me from the courthouse and said, Dad, it's done.

And I said, I'm going to write a column.

And I sat-- I was actually in the PBS office up in Reno when I sat down and I wrote that column very quickly.

And by far, Amber, it's gotten more reaction than anything I've ever written.

And it's not even close.

And it still gets reaction to this day.

It's called "The Child I Love."

I hope people read it.

-He went in front of a judge all on his own?

-He did.

He did.

I was in Reno when this happened.

And he was in Vegas, and he went.

I'm not sure if his girlfriend at the time accompanied him or not.

But, yeah, and he answered some questions, and they did it.

-How old was he?

-He was, I think, 22.

21, 22 at the time.

-Okay, so now he's approaching 30.

Am I right?

-Well, he's 27.

Let's not age him, because that makes me feel old.

-And how's he doing?

-He's doing well, you know?

He finally decided he wanted-- He got married about a year and a half ago or so.

And he moved to Southern California, and he's doing well.

-Wonderful to hear.

The same year you wrote that column, 2016, was the same year you launched the Nevada Independent .

Why did you do it?

What did you feel the need for it was at that?

-Well, after I had left my last TV gig, I really wanted to do something different.

And I kind of thought that after all the years of experience, maybe I should start my own news organization.

And so I thought about it.

I said, you know, I'm old enough to do it now and I want to mentor some young journalists and I want to do something different.

And it came at kind of a perfect storm.

I don't like the expression, but it did.

Sheldon Adelson had just bought the Review-Journal .

The Sun was really retrenching, didn't have many resources.

And so I thought, this is the time to do it.

There's a yearning out there, I hoped, for people who wanted deeply-reported, transparent, unbiased journalism.

You know as well as I do, the media sometimes finishes below politicians in popularity contests, right?

And so I wanted to do something about that.

And so I looked around, and I saw the nonprofit model.

And I said, I'm gonna try this.

-And your assessment of it thus far?

-It's been by far the best thing and the hardest thing that I've done in journalism.

And you know, we started with six people on January 17, 2017, and we just hired our, I think, 24th employee.

So we're at four times the size.

We're almost six years old.

It has been quite a roller coaster ride, I have to tell you.

I never thought that I could do what all these politicians I covered do, which is raise money.

You have to raise money for a nonprofit.

But we are-- We are thriving.

I just love the young people that work for me, the reporters.

They're so talented, and they bought into the culture of the "Indie," as we call it, and it's much more of a bottom-up culture than a top-down.

They tell me what to do.

They tell me what's wrong, and I listen, believe it or not.

And they have-- They are the ones who have made the Indie what it is.

It's the best thing I've done in journalism.

And I like to say it this way, and it's true: It's the one that now has the least to do with me.

It's about the team.

-And about you, do you miss being the host on television?

Granted, you're on TV all the time in an analyst expert role.

-You know, I really don't.

I thought I might miss it.

And people ask me this all the time.

And they say, Can't you get a TV show again?

I really don't have any interest in it.

I mean, I've been there, done that.

I did it for almost 16 years, and I loved-- I loved every minute of it.

The only time I miss it, and this does not apply to Nevada Week , but when there's TV hosts out there who are not asking the right questions, I still yell at the TV.

-I understand.

We only have a couple minutes left, and I wanted to get this one in.

You're from Buffalo, New York, a lifelong Bills fan.

You've lived through Scott Norwood's missed field goal-- -I was not told this was going to come up.

- --that led to the first of four straight Super Bowl losses.

-Yeah.

-Hey, you have Josh Allen now.

You guys are 6 and 3 as of this taping, but you're coming off two losses, a particularly painful one in OT to the Vikings.

What is life like as a Bills fan?

-You just used the right word, "painful."

Agonizing.

We always expect the worst.

And if you saw the Minnesota game, the worst occurred there.

They had this great goal line stand, and then Josh Allen fumbled in the end zone.

They still, they came back and made it in overtime.

But you know, the four Super Bowls thing, and I've been a Bill's fan for more than 50 years.

I'll really date myself.

That was not-- The Norwood loss was the only one that really bothered me, Amber, because as you probably know, that was the only one where they were clearly the better team.

But Bill Parcells outcoached Marv Levy, and that's how they won.

The other games were blowouts.

And it was when the NFC was really dominant over that, so I kind of expected it.

It still hurts when your team loses, but I love Josh Allen.

Josh Allen is by far the most exciting player, in my opinion, the Bills have ever had.

And they've had a few.

And he's so much fun to watch, but I'm worried about his injury.

And I don't want to hear any more talk about the Super Bowl.

I just-- I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

-Well, then I won't say anymore.

Jon Ralston, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person .

And to see more of Nevada Week In Person , go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

♪♪♪