Danny Tarkanian is challenging incumbent Senator Dean Heller for the republican nomination in 2018. Heller is up for re-election after holding the seat since 2011. Tarkanian is a supporter of President Donald Trump and hopes to forge ahead with his policies.
"He needs people in the Senate that are going to support his 'America First' policies, and I have the courage and conviction to do so, and right now, Nevada doesn't have that," Tarkanian said.
Heller has been on opposite sides of the president on things like health care, but he is onboard with a new tax plan. Tarkanian says the latest legislation could be better, but supports what it does for everyday Americans.
"We're going to double our personal exemptions," Tarkanian said. "I think that helps middle-class Americans. You're going to have an increase in child tax credit, which I think is very important."
Republicans plan on slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to as low as 21 percent. Tarkanian supports that plan and says it will keep companies in the U.S.
"We need to give our corporations the ability to compete internationally, lowering their tax rates will. And it is going to help us keep jobs here in America, which President Trump promised," Tarkanian said.
Sen. Heller is a long-time supporter of the Children's Health Insurance Program. The president recently signed a spending bill that temporarily pays for CHIP, while lawmakers hammer out long-term funding, which has bipartisan support. Last year, the program helped 9 million children, requiring $15.6 billion. Tarkanian supports the program.
"It's the ones that need it the most," Tarkanian said. "Government should be there to help people who can't help themselves to get a hand up, and that is what this program does."
Tarkanian says he agrees with with the president on immigration issues. When it comes to programs like DACA, which allows undocumented children who came to the U.S. as children to stay, he says you have to take care of securing the border first.
"That means you protect the border; you revise immigration policies; you fund the wall, whatever else we need to do to protect the borders, and then you go to the next step on how to handle people that are here, illegally, and the DACA children should be first," Tarkanian said. "I certainly believe that the children that came here should have the ability to stay here. I just don't believe they should be provided citizenship that is granted to people who come here the right way."
