The Game Changer

“A critical but appreciative biography that explores how a quietly persistent politician got things done.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Ralston paints Reid as, above all, wryly self-aware of his own willingness to bend his principles to make progress. It’s an insightful, entertaining portrait.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The Game Changer is an achievement. Ralston reports Harry Reid’s story. Reports. Letters. Emails. Memos. Interviews. Witnesses. Hard, sturdy facts. These are the building blocks of a story that isn’t sanitized or stylized. Its significance can and will for years hence be found in its attention to detail - its keen eye for motivation, process, alliance, gamesmanship, and tactics—fundamentals of success at the highest strata of American political life. Reid ascended those heights. It took a tenacious and non-romantic journalist to make sense of the distance traveled and the switchbacks required.”
—Major Garrett, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News
“Jon Ralston has brought us an invaluable study of how political power is amassed, wielded and maintained. With revealing interviews and never-before-seen documents, Ralston tells the singular story of how Harry Reid rose from desert poverty to the heights of Washington– building the modern Democratic Party and today’s Las Vegas along the way. If you enjoyed Robert Caro on LBJ, you’ll love this book.”
—Jonathan Martin, Politico columnist and co-author of New York Times bestseller This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future

“Harry Reid was a paradox, a human riddle with the manner of a country parson, the nerve of a knife-fighter and the ruthless cunning of Machiavelli himself. Jon Ralston, who covered Reid longer and better than anyone, has delivered an incisive biography that captures Reid in all his strength, weakness and contradictions.”
—Mark Z. Barabak, LA Times political columnist

Jon Ralston is the founder and CEO of The Nevada Independent. He has been covering politics in Nevada for more than thirty-five years and has been a columnist at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sun, and most recently at the Reno Gazette-Journal, which he left in November 2016 to start The Indy. He has hosted several TV programs over the years, including Ralston Live on Vegas PBS and Ralston Reports on KSNV News 3. In 2012, Politico named Ralston one of the Top 50 “Politicos to Watch.” He frequently appears on MSNBC, and he has also appeared on NBC’s long-running Meet the Press. He lives in Las Vegas.

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