They were like oil and water. Then Harry Reid wanted someone to tell his life story
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
- Veteran Nevada journalist Jon Ralson has written the definitive biography of the former Senate majority leader.
- Their collaboration was an improbable pairing, given years of conflict.
To say Harry Reid and Jon Ralston had a fraught relationship is like suggesting Arabs and Israelis haven’t always been on the best of terms.
Or there’s a wee bit of tension between fans of the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants.
Reid, the former Senate majority leader and most powerful and important lawmaker ever to emerge from Nevada, went for long periods without speaking to Ralston, the state’s most prominent and highly regarded political journalist. Beyond that, Reid tried several times to get Ralston fired, finally succeeding when he was unceremoniously dumped by the TV stations that for years broadcast Ralston’s statewide public affairs program.
And yet when it came time to etch his name in history, Reid summoned Ralston and asked him to write his biography.
“He said, ‘Jon, you and I have something in common. We’re both survivors,’” Ralston recounted last week, laughing at the memory of their 2021 conversation.
“Which I thought was quite ironic, since he had tried to make sure I didn’t survive in my job several times. But he said, ‘You’re the only one who can do this book right. ... I know I’m not going to like everything you write, but I want you to do the book.’ ”
Barabak: This Las Vegas Republican had high hopes for Trump. But a ‘Trump slump’ made life worse
Aaron Mahan, who’s spent decades as a server on and off the Strip, says inflation and Trump’s pugnacious immigration and foreign policies have chased tourists away. He’s feeling it in his wallet.
The moment speaks to the quintessence of Reid, a flinty product of Nevada’s hardpan desert, who was famously unflinching and unsentimental in his pursuit and application of political power.
Reid, who died a little over four years ago, was a paradoxical mix of pugilism and self-effacement: cunning, ruthless and, at times, surprisingly tender-hearted. Beneath the bland exterior of a country parson, all soft-spoken solemnity, beat the heart of a bare-fisted brawler.
In short, he was an irresistible subject for a longtime student of politics like Ralston, whose book, “The Game Changer,” comes out Tuesday.
“I think there was a mutual respect there,” Ralston said of his parry-and-thrust relationship with Reid, who left the Senate in 2017 after more than 30 years on Capitol Hill. “Not to sound like an egoist, but he knew that I chronicled him in a way that nobody else did and recognized things about him that no one else did.”
Ralston took up the subject with no constraints.
Reid, who died about six months after asking Ralston to pen his biography, sat for two dozen interviews. He encouraged family, friends and former staffers to cooperate with Ralston. He granted unlimited access to his voluminous records — 12 million digital files and 100 boxes archived at the University of Nevada, Reno — including personal correspondence and internal emails. (Those include the senator and his chief of staff gleefully celebrating Ralston’s professional setbacks.)
The result is the definitive work — clear-eyed, evenhanded — on Reid and his legacy, which includes passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, if you prefer; the survival of the Las Vegas Strip during the Great Recession, and, most controversially, the Senate’s abandonment of the filibuster for presidential nominees, which eventually led to today’s Trump-stacked Supreme Court.
(Full disclosure: Your friendly columnist read the book in galley form and provided a favorable blurb that appears on the back cover.)
Barabak: How labor and a wily senator turned Nevada blue — and redrew the nation’s presidential map
The late Sen. Harry Reid’s clout and fundraising muscle made Nevada’s Democratic Party a juggernaut. In transforming the state, he recast the race for the White House.
The biography recounts standard Reid lore.
The hardscrabble upbringing in Searchlight, Nev., a pinpoint about an hour’s drive south of Las Vegas. His hitchhiking, 40-mile commute to attend high school in Henderson. His years as an amateur boxer — and scuffle with his future father in law — and work as a Capitol police officer while attending law school in Washington, D.C. The car-bomb attempt on Reid’s life, connected to his work on the Nevada Gaming Commission.
And, of course, his oft-stumbling climb through the ranks of Nevada politics, which included a failed bid for Las Vegas mayor, a U.S. Senate contest he lost by fewer than 700 votes and another Reid won by fewer than 500.
Ralston, of course, was well-versed in that history, having written much of it. (Today, he serves as chief executive of the Nevada Independent, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news and opinion website he founded in 2017.)
Even as the world’s foremost Reid-ologist, as Ralston jokingly calls himself, there were things that surprised him.
He was unaware of the length and depth of an FBI probe, conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s, into Reid over purported mob ties and other alleged improprieties. “He was never indicted or charged or anything,” Ralston said, “but they clearly were after him.”
And he had no idea of Reid’s prolific penmanship.
James Blanchard, a fourth-generation shrimper, was prepared to hang up his nets because of collapsing prices caused by imports. He’s not a fan of Trump’s persona, but appreciates his policies.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands of [notes and letters] ... to friends, to colleagues in the Senate, to journalists and others,” Ralston said. “That really is something that’s not known about Harry Reid, how he established personal connections with people, which helped him become the effective leader that he was in the U.S. Senate.”
Even after decades of covering Reid, and years devoted to researching his biography, Ralston won’t presume to say he knows exactly what made him tick — though he suggested Reid’s impoverished, trauma-filled childhood had a lasting impact.
“He was an incredibly driven person,” Ralson said, “who went right up the line and, some would say over it, in trying to achieve what he thought was best for himself, for his party, for his country, for his friends, for his family.”
Along with that determination, Reid had an industrial-strength capacity to relinquish hard feelings, forget old animosities and move on. So, too, does Ralston. Their clashes were “just business,” Ralston said, and nothing he took personally.
The result is an improbable collaboration that produced an insightful examination and worthy coda to a remarkable career.
Insights
L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles.
Viewpoint
Perspectives
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
- Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was a powerful and transformative figure in American politics whose legacy encompasses major legislative achievements including the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the financial rescue of the Las Vegas Strip during the Great Recession, and restructuring of the Senate filibuster rules for presidential nominees.[3] Reid’s effectiveness as a leader stemmed from his determination and willingness to employ hardball political tactics in pursuit of what he believed was best for his party and country, reflecting his journey from humble beginnings in Searchlight, Nevada.[3] Beyond his legislative accomplishments, Reid demonstrated an often-overlooked capacity for establishing personal connections through prolific correspondence with colleagues and friends, which contributed significantly to his effectiveness in the Senate.[1] The author characterizes Reid as a paradoxical figure—outwardly bland and soft-spoken yet possessing the instincts of a bare-fisted fighter, with an ability to move past conflicts and old animosities.[1] Reid’s willingness to work across party lines and make deals, even with Republicans he publicly criticized, showcased his pragmatic approach to governance and his understanding that political effectiveness sometimes required compromising on stated principles.[2] The biography is presented as a clear-eyed and evenhanded examination of Reid’s complex legacy that neither whitewashes his methods nor diminishes his accomplishments.[1]
Different views on the topic
- Reid’s political approach contributed to the coarsening of political discourse in America, including his inflammatory attacks on political opponents such as calling Mitt Romney a liar about his taxes.[4] Reid weaponized his relationships with media outlet owners to suppress critical journalism and attempted multiple times to have journalist Jon Ralston fired from his positions, demonstrating a troubling willingness to use power to silence press criticism rather than accept accountability for his actions.[2][4] His pattern of prioritizing power over principle is evident in his evolving positions on major issues—he shifted from opposing the weakening of the filibuster when Republicans proposed it to championing that same measure in 2013, and transitioned from supporting a right-to-life amendment and opposing protections for gay people to becoming an advocate for LGBT rights, suggesting political expediency rather than deeply held conviction. The filibuster changes Reid championed, while intended to protect Obama’s judicial nominees, ultimately opened the door for Republicans to use the same tactics to confirm three Trump Supreme Court justices, contributing to outcomes that contradicted his political goals.[3] Reid’s ruthless application of political power and his willingness to use influence to benefit family members through job placements raised questions about whether his methods served the public interest or primarily advanced his personal and familial interests.[2][4]
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
Taped Jan 8, 2026, a year after the Eaton Fire, this episode features Ondi Timoner. After losing her home, she began documenting the displacement and financial struggles of her neighbors, joining My Tribe Rise to help Altadena rebuild and recover.
Attorney Frank Carson defended the accused for decades. Framed for murder and later acquitted, a star witness admitted he lied. Stanislaus County paid $22.5M to settle his estate’s lawsuit.
Hear from the winner of the 1968 Caltech vs MIT electric car race. But it’s not all fresh air: smog devastates communities of color, and the Trump administration may pull the plug on California’s ability to clear its own air.
