John Locher / AP
Republican Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt speaks at a news conference Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, in Las Vegas.
Monday, Oct. 31, 2022 | 5:53 p.m.
A Republican operative once salaried by the campaign for Nevada U.S. Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt posted apparent antisemitic social media posts under a fake name, as well as other bigoted remarks toward women and gay and transgender people, according to a media report published Sunday.
The report from Jewish Insider, which covers U.S. politics, philanthropy and business news, alleges Michael Pecjak was behind an account called “LaxaltStan” which had on several occasions tweeted denigrations before the account was deleted Thursday, according to the report.
The account’s bio section said it was “NOT AFFILIATED” with Laxalt, but a review by the Jewish Insider linked the account to Pecjack, who was paid about $6,500 by Laxalt’s campaign in August, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission.
Pecjak was terminated by Laxalt’s team in August, campaign spokesman Brian Freimuth said, but did not give a reason for Pecjak’s dismissal. Freimuth described Pecjak as a “field representative,” who canvassed door-to-door.
“This field representative was terminated in August and is not affiliated with the campaign in any way,” Freimuth said in a statement. “The bigoted opinions expressed on the twitter account certainly don’t reflect the views of Adam Laxalt or this campaign. Adam’s public and private life show that he believes there should be zero tolerance for antisemitism in any form and any suggestion otherwise is a politically motivated lie. Adam will always stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish community.”
Pecjak has five entries for disbursements under the Laxalt For Senate campaign finance filings which totaled $6,516.13 for “salary” and an additional $264.94 for “mileage reimbursement,” according to the FEC. Laxalt For Senate is one of the official committees run by the Laxalt campaign.
Further, the “LaxaltStan” account tweeted “Go follow my main @MichaelPecjak” on March 15, according to the internet archive Wayback Machine. Pecjak’s personal account, which has since been deleted, linked the Henderson native as political director for Carolina Serrano, who was running to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., but lost to Mark Robertson during June’s Republican primary.
“The LaxaltStan” account began getting active again in mid-August after previously posting frequently during the leadup to the June 14 primary, Jewish Insider reported. Since August and before its deletion, the account mostly promoted Laxalt, but again posted a number of “blatantly” bigoted remarks.
In recent weeks, the “LaxaltStan” account, which denotes internet slang for a celebrity’s hardcore follower, compared abortion to the Holocaust and claimed that “Jews are not a religious sect and are a cult,” according to archived posts retrieved by Jewish Insider.
The news report also proclaimed that “Trans children aren’t real. It’s just child abuse by terrible parents.” He also belittled Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who is wheelchair bound, for refusing to “stand up for his fellow Texans,” as well as described the QAnon conspiracy theory as a “moderate” position.
Pecjak did not respond to a request for interview sent to his Facebook account. A review of Pecjak’s social media profiles indicates he graduated from Brigham Young University and previously worked for the Georgia GOP and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which fundraises to get conservatives into Congress’ upper chamber.
At a press conference Monday, incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who Laxalt is attempting to unseat, condemned the posts and slammed her opponent for not speaking out more forcefully.
“It’s sad that we have to be here today, in 2022, to denounce hatred and antisemitism,” Cortez Masto siad. “There’s no question that antisemitism is on the rise in this country and across the globe, so we need to stand together as Nevadans to condemn it.”
Cortez Masto also criticized Laxalt’s endorsement from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who at a campaign event for a Senate candidate in New Hampshire likened supporters of former President Donald Trump to Holocaust victims. “He (Laxalt) hired a staffer who has posted on social media attacking Jewish people, women and other groups that so often face discrimination,” Cortez Masto continued. “The worst part is that Laxalt did not condemn this staffer’s harmful, dangerous language. He said the staffer has already left the campaign, but didn’t say why. He had ample opportunity to stand up and speak out against this antisemitic behavior, but he did not. This is outrageous and unacceptable.”
A poll released Monday by Siena College/The New York Times showed Laxalt and Cortez Masto tied with 47% apiece with just eight days until the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Most political analysts have pinned the race a toss-up, and many anticipate it will be essential for Republicans to retake control of the Senate.
As Nevada Attorney General, Laxalt, who is endorsed by the Republican Jewish Coalition, joined a federal lawsuit in 2018 that sought to bar government contractors from discriminating based on nationality or national origin against Israel.
At the time, he said, “Nevada has long had a strong interest in preventing invidious discrimination based on nationality — an interest that is reflected in Nevada’s laws, including its law preventing the government from contracting with companies that boycott Israel.”
In a statement to the Sun, RJC national political director Sam Markstein said the organization still stands behind Laxalt and accused Cortez Masto of having a “distressing” record of abandoning Israel.
“This was a low-level staffer who was fired in August, and his bigoted comments do not reflect the candidate or the campaign,” Markenstein’s statement said. “The fact is that Adam Laxalt has all the momentum heading into the final week of this race because he is focused on the issues that matter to Nevadans — reducing skyrocketing costs of living, combatting rising crime, solving the crisis at the border — and as Adam eloquently detailed at an RJC Jewish community rally in Las Vegas just last month, he will be a stalwart on matters of concern to the Jewish community, including standing shoulder to shoulder with us in fighting antisemitism.
“In reality, Catherine Cortez Masto is the candidate with the distressing record of abandoning the one and only Jewish state by taking tens of thousands of dollars from anti-Israel groups like J Street, and unabashedly emboldening Iran, the largest state-sponsor of terrorism, by supporting the disastrous nuclear deal that would flood the Ayatollah’s regime with funds to carry out even more deadly attacks on American and Israeli Jews,” Markenstein said.
