All four candidates President Donald Trump endorsed in Nevada’s primary — each anointed in a Truth Social post — won their races Tuesday and will be on the ballot in November.
The most contentious race was for the 2nd Congressional District, which heavily leans Republican and has been held by retiring Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) since 2011. Former state Sen. James Settelmeyer (R-Minden) was expected to be the front runner for the seat — until Trump endorsed retired Air Force Lt. Col. David Flippo less than two weeks before the election.
Trump called Flippo an “America First Patriot” and is “strongly supported by the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Nevada.”
The endorsement also fractured the Silver State’s Republican Party.
Settelmeyer had endorsements from Gov. Joe Lombardo and Amodei. But after Trump weighed in, Amodei posted a lengthy rebuke on X.
“As the first candidate President Trump endorsed in CD2 last November, I can tell you he got it right the first time. But since I won’t be on the ballot, he made a mistake today,” Amodei wrote.
Amodei questioned Trump’s endorsement, pointing out that Flippo only recently moved to Northern Nevada, which encompasses CD2. Settelmeyer is a longtime Northern Nevadan with familial roots that date back to 125 years ago.
“With all due respect Mr. President, Nevada already has five representatives who live in Clark County. Your endorsement, if followed, would make it six out of six,” Amodei wrote. “… This endorsement is an incredibly curious way to say thank you to those people who have been the bedrock of your political endeavors here in original Nevada.”
Unlike Amodei, Lombardo did not push back on Trump’s endorsement.
Since the endorsement, MAGA Republicans painted Settelmeyer as a “RINO” — a Republican in name only — claiming Congress doesn’t need politicians who “campaign as conservatives and vote like woke liberals.”
What it means for Nevada
Democratic nominee Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former Assembly majority leader from Reno, will challenge Flippo in November. No Democrat has won CD2 since it was created after the 1980 census, but the party is betting that Flippo’s controversies — and voter dissatisfaction with the Trump administration — give Benitez-Thompson a fighting chance to represent Nevada in Congress.
Similarly, grassroot organizations and activists are not only criticizing CD2 Republicans for electing Flippo, but they’re standing behind Benitez-Thompson with the hope to flip CD2 from red to blue.
If elected, Flippo says on his campaign website that he will “stand up against the radical far left” who “make it their fulltime job to kill American Jobs” and he will stop “woke California” from pumping fresh water into the ocean to “protect a fish.”
Outgoing Assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno, chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party said Flippo’s been “obsessed with chasing political clout, focused solely on enacting Trump’s MAGA agenda in Washington.”
“The contrast between far-right extremist carpetbagger David Flippo and Teresa Benitez-Thompson, who has been fighting for Northern Nevada long before Flippo moved from Las Vegas… couldn’t be more stark,” Monroe-Moreno wrote in a statement.
The other three candidates Trump endorsed also won their primaries Tuesday: state Sen. Carrie Buck (R-Henderson), who will challenge Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nevada) in CD1; video game composer Marty O’Donnell, who will face Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) in CD3; and attorney Adriana Guzmán Fralick, who will face state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro for attorney general.
