Retiring GOP Congressman in Deep-Red District Says It’s No ‘Guarantee’ His Party Will Hold the Seat in November

A retiring Republican lawmaker, Congressman Mark Amodei, who represents a deep-red district in Nevada, says there is no guarantee that the GOP will hold on to his seat in November. Mr. Amodei’s chosen successor for the seat lost the Republican primary to a candidate backed by President Trump. Mr. Amodei — a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee — is well-known around the Capitol for being a workhorse. He endorsed the former minority leader of the state senate, James Settelmeyer, to succeed him in the House, though on Tuesday, Mr. Settelmeyer lost the primary to a retired Air Force colonel, David Flippo. When Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Flippo last month, Mr. Amodei said in a post on X that the president had “made a mistake.” “The home team has done just fine. The time has not come for a national private political organization to pick for Nevadans, who speaks for them in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Mr. Amodei said at the time. He addressed the president directly, saying the endorsement of Mr. Flippo “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.”With Mr. Flippo now having been chosen as the Republican nominee, Mr. Amodei says the seat is at risk. “[T]he Republican candidate advancing to the general election faces a well-positioned Democrat opponent,” Mr. Amodei wrote on X Thursday, without naming Mr. Flippo. He is facing off against the former state house of representatives majority leader, Teresa Benitez-Thompson, in the general election. “It will be an interesting summer and fall, but I believe it’s fair to say that [the district], for the first time in its history, isn’t a Republican guarantee. What was once a safe prediction may quickly become an expensive one.”“It is my hope that the values and culture that built our Original Nevada, Congressional District Two, will still have a strong voice in the U.S. House of Representatives,” the outgoing congressman remarked, notably not offering an endorsement to Mr. Flippo. “I look forward to the next 5 months as an election observer, instead of a candidate,” Mr. Amodei concluded. The Second District, which Mr. Amodei has represented since 2011, is the reddest in the state. It is so pro-Republican that Democrats did not even field a candidate to run against Mr. Amodei in 2024. In the last presidential election, Mr. Trump carried the district by 14 points.

Retiring GOP Congressman in Deep-Red District Says It’s No ‘Guarantee’ His Party Will Hold the Seat in November

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