Who is Drew Johnson, the Republican challenger to Nevada US Rep. Susie Lee?

Archived social media posts from the longtime conservative policy adviser and think tanker obtained by The Nevadan show Johnson’s libertarian roots. 

Nevada Republican US House candidate Drew Johnson has dedicated his career to tracking federal spending, so a win in November would be quite the role reversal, putting him partially in charge of the nation’s checkbook. 

After starting his own right-leaning think tank focused on free market ideals and reducing government spending in his home state of Tennessee, Johnson has spent more than a decade working as a policy analyst and conservative opinion writer. Since making his initial run for office in 2022 — which resulted in an unsuccessful bid for Clark County Commission determined by fewer than 400 votes — Johnson set his sights on a higher office and this fall is challenging Democratic US Rep. Susie Lee to represent Nevada’s Third Congressional District. 

Johnson’s campaign did not respond to multiple interview requests from The Nevadan, but after pulling out a surprise win in June’s statewide primary, Johnson told The Nevada Independent he considered himself a libertarian-leaning Republican who’s running in part to lower taxes and slash federal spending, but to also help craft the future of the GOP either with or without former President Donald Trump back in the White House. 

Although Johnson has been critical of Trump in the past — he once called the former president while he was still in office a “socialist,” and an “embarrassment,” using a separate account that’s since been set to private — Johnson has endorsed Trump for this year’s race. 

That account, @Drews_Views on X, was taken private after receiving death threats, Johnson told the Independent for a story published June 16. But it also appears to have posted some of Johnson’s more controversial musings, according to screen grabs of posts obtained by The Nevadan. 

“Want to reduce teen binge-drinking & likely save lives? Abolish the federal drinking age (says the teetotaler),” the account posted in January 2015, with an accompanying article link. “Want to reduce rape & sexual assault? Open more strip clubs. Just like internet porn has proved to reduce teen pregnancy, divorce and sex crimes against children & adults, strip clubs and escort services are helping to solve many of the same issues,” another post read. 

Johnson’s views, at least on Trump, have apparently only deviated slightly. The Independent pressed Johnson on some former posts — notably ones critical of Trump, and he explained his rationale for some. 

“We’ve got to figure out — when there’s not this kind of cult of personality — what does the party return to?” Johnson told the Independent. “Does it follow Trump and become more populist? Does it become more like what I would like to see, which is a more free market, limited government, small-l libertarian, big tent party? That’s what I’m hoping to help create.”

Johnson’s political foray 

Johnson has lived in Las Vegas since 2015 and was one of the earliest season ticket holders for the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights — so much so that he claims to have started a tradition at VGK games in which fans throw pink “victory flamingos” after each home win. 

His start in politics, however, is seemingly rooted in his upbringing in a poor neighborhood in rural Appalachia, which motivated him to create a public policy group rooted in “limited government and individual liberty,” according to a questionnaire he filled out for the candidate-tracking website Ballotpedia. 

He even lived in his car during his 20s while launching the conservative policy think tank now called the Beacon Center of Tennessee — which years later used public records to approximate former vice president and climate activist Al Gore’s electricity consumption — and has completed fellowships at other fiscally-conservatives groups like the Charles Koch Institute and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. 

A supporter of same-sex marriage and an opponent of the federal death penalty, Johnson also has spent in excess of a decade as an opinion writer, most recently with the right-wing outlet Newsmax, where his author page lists entries as recent as Aug. 20. 

In 2022, Johnson lost to Democratic Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones by 336 votes, despite Jones having name recognition as an incumbent and a hefty fundraising advantage. Campaign finance reports filed by Johnson in 2022 show he received $479,690 in contributions — roughly half of the approximately $840,000 raised by Jones.

But unlike Jones, nearly two-thirds of Johnson’s total donations came from two people, including himself. Johnson lent his campaign $100,000, records show, while local billionaire Robert Bigelow donated approximately $200,000 to Johnson through several business entities tied to addresses affiliated with Bigelow. 

Bigelow — who has long used his wealth built by his extended-stay hotel chain Budget Suites of America to fund other ventures related to space exploration and research into alien life — has ascended to GOP mega donor status in recent years. Bigelow has contributed more than $30 million to groups that helped elect Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2022, and tens of millions more in donations to Trump this year, and, before that, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed presidential run. 

This time around, Johnson donated $300,000 to his own campaign before his primary win, and has raised just under $550,000 to date, according to Federal Election Commission data. Johnson’s primary fundraising ranked third in a GOP field that included former state treasurer Dan Schwartz and acclaimed video game music composer Marty O’Donnell, who also largely self-funded their own campaigns.

In comparison, the Lee campaign reported having more than $4.2 million in receipts as of the most recent FEC filing period. 

Lee is the favorite to win, according to the Cook Political Report, as her seat is predicted as a “lean Democrat,” and outside Republican groups like the National Republican Congressional Committee have signaled a hesitancy to spend heavily in Nevada districts currently being represented by Democrats, according to the Independent. 

His chief attacks on Lee have focused on her voting record with fellow Democrats and support for programs funded by legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and others — which have delivered billions for Nevada to make improvements to roads, expand broadband access, combat a historic drought plaguing the West, create tax credits for investing in clean energy programs, and provide new incentives for American companies to move or open new operations in the US. In a post to X this month , he levied an unfounded accusation that Lee benefited from the passage of those laws through insider trading.  

“Multimillionaire Susie Lee is in Congress to make herself richer, not serve our community,” Johnson’s account with the handle @DrewForNevada posted on Aug. 15. 

Lee, meanwhile, will head into her re-election to tout a bipartisan record ahead of voters. While she was an affirmative vote in nearly every major Democratic bill this term and has opposed the bulk of other partisan bills in the GOP-led House, Lee in May was listed as the seventh-most bipartisan member of Congress, according to a composite score calculated by the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. The index quantifies how often representatives introduce bills that attract a co-sponsor from another party as well as how often they in turn co-sponsor legislation introduced by a colleague across the aisle. 

Johnson told the Independent he thinks his success in the primary was in part his ability to connect with voters at a grassroots level, and hopes to engage with potential voters who might otherwise sit at home in November. If he can do that, he said, he can do what Lee’s past GOP rivals have been unable to do. 

Whether he actually will is a whole different story.