Adam Laxalt's kin are most definitely not keeping it in the family.
Twelve relatives of the Republican candidate for governor in Nevada have penned an op-ed urging Silver State voters to not vote for him.
In the article — published Monday in The Reno Gazette-Journal and titled "12 Laxalt family members oppose Laxalt for Nevada governor. Here's why, in their own words" — the writers slam the candidate for lacking ties to Nevada, his stances on immigration and reproductive rights and not having adequate qualifications for the job.
“All of these shortcomings come down to a lack of real, authentic connection to our state, and a failure to understand what is important to real Nevadans,” the authors wrote, adding that Laxalt, who serves currently as the state’s attorney general, is "the wrong choice for Nevada’s governorship."
Polls show that Laxalt is in a dead heat with Democratic candidate Steve Sisolak.
A Laxalt campaign spokesman initiallydeclined to respond to questions about the op-ed, instead sending a link to a Daily Caller story about Sisolak.
In a second email, however, Laxalt spokesman Parker Briden said that "Adam has a large family and some distant relatives are lifelong liberal activists, donors, and operatives."
"They’ve done this many times — going back to 2014 — and it's never had any impact," Briden said.
The authors of the op-ed — whose specific relation to Laxalt were not identified by the newspaper — wrote that Laxalt were to be elected, "public lands will become less accessible for hunters and fishers and backpackers" and that the candidate's "positions on health care and reproductive rights would limit how Nevadans care for their bodies, or be free from government interference in relationships as sacred and personal as marriage."
They slammed Laxalt for being “raised on the East Coast, 3,000 miles away, in Washington, D.C.” and having “moved here only in 2013, only one year later launching his political career.”
“Aside from the occasional short visit, Adam never knew the state or its people. Perhaps if he had, he would stand for Nevada's values rather than for those of his out-of-state donors,” they wrote.
The authors also say Laxalt's "tenure in the attorney general’s office has been little more than a four-year publicity tour for his current campaign for governor."
The Nevada op-ed is not be the first time a candidate has been publicly opposed by his family. Last month, six siblings of U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., spoke out against the re-election of their brother in a television ad. And in August, the son of the retiring chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., tweeted, "I just gave the maximum allowed donation" to Jennifer Lewis, a Democrat running for the congressman's seat.