The Game Changer
How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Published on 20. January 2026
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-1-9821-9441-3 (ISBN)
Description
How did the son of a laundress for local brothels end up one of America's most powerful politicians and the Senate's most bare-knuckled Democrat? Political journalist Jon Ralston gives us the first full biography of Harry Reid, the five-time Senator from Nevada whose ruthlessness and tenacity produced the most groundbreaking legislation of the late 20th century, and who also invented the tactics that would keep his Democratic Party in control. For that, he inspired loyalty and derision, admiration and disdain. But his legacy of change speaks for itself.
Born in tiny Searchlight, Nevada, Harry Reid rose from a childhood in a ramshackle home in the middle of nowhere to become the Democratic leader who ensured Obamacare became law, that the nation's banks played by the rules, and who helped rescue the American economy by pushing through a stimulus bill.
His political instincts were forged in the take-no-prisoners culture of Nevada where he was once investigated by the FBI for his ties to the mob. He persuaded a Republican senator to switch parties to gain partisan control, and he changed the Senate filibuster rules to save President Obama's lower court nominees. That maneuver later helped Republicans to cement the appointments of three Supreme Court justices. Reid also became a formidable force in Nevada, building a political machine that turned a red state blue and left an unmatched legacy on infrastructure and the environment-including squelching a planned nuclear waste dump.
In The Game Changer, Ralston shows the endurance of his accomplishments, but also his role in the enduring dysfunction of what was once called the world's greatest deliberative body. It is a complicated portrait of a man who would not be denied.
Born in tiny Searchlight, Nevada, Harry Reid rose from a childhood in a ramshackle home in the middle of nowhere to become the Democratic leader who ensured Obamacare became law, that the nation's banks played by the rules, and who helped rescue the American economy by pushing through a stimulus bill.
His political instincts were forged in the take-no-prisoners culture of Nevada where he was once investigated by the FBI for his ties to the mob. He persuaded a Republican senator to switch parties to gain partisan control, and he changed the Senate filibuster rules to save President Obama's lower court nominees. That maneuver later helped Republicans to cement the appointments of three Supreme Court justices. Reid also became a formidable force in Nevada, building a political machine that turned a red state blue and left an unmatched legacy on infrastructure and the environment-including squelching a planned nuclear waste dump.
In The Game Changer, Ralston shows the endurance of his accomplishments, but also his role in the enduring dysfunction of what was once called the world's greatest deliberative body. It is a complicated portrait of a man who would not be denied.
Reviews / Votes
"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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
8-pg b&w insert
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
570 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-9821-9441-3 (9781982194413)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2026
Simon + Schuster LLC
€14.83
Available for download
Person
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.