Nevada delegate gets state capital wrong during Republican National Convention roll call

The chairman of the Nevada Republican Party officially awarded the majority of the state’s delegates Tuesday to presidential hopeful Donald Trump, but not without making a grade-school gaffe live on national television.

“From the great shores of Lake Tahoe, to the most entertaining capital city, Las Vegas, Nevada, this time what’s said in Las Vegas will not stay in Las Vegas,” Michael J. McDonald said during roll call Tuesday evening at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Microphone in hand and live on air, Mr. McDonald said that 16 of the state’s 30 delegates were being awarded to Mr. Trump, who moments later was officially declared the Republican Party’s official nominee for president.

Unfortunately for the chairman, however, that announcement was largely overshadowed by his flagrant geographical flub — Las Vegas isn’t Nevada’s capital, Carson City is and has been for over 160 years.

Mr. McDonald’s remark was quickly pounced on by the press, with the website Mashable accusing him of committing “a common mistake made by American schoolchildren.”

Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell, meanwhile, capitalized on the comment by using it as an excuse to invite Mr. McDonald to see Nevada’s actually capital.

“As mayor of the real capital of NV, I extend a personal invite to this gentleman to #visitcarsoncity. We’re awesome,” Mr. Crowell tweeted.

Given his background, however, Mr. McDonald presumably knows his fair share of Nevada facts and simply misspoke when he said Las Vegas with the state capital — Mr. McDonald was elected to the Las Vegas City Council in 1995 before being named chair of the state’s Republican Party in 2012, 2013 and 2015.

In July 2015, Mr. McDonald was hired to work as a senior deputy treasurer in the Nevada State Treasurer’s Office, a $95,000 per year job doing community outreach, The Associated Press reported. The Nevada State Treasurer has offices in both Carson City and Las Vegas.