Flippo Used a Grieving Father to Smear James Settelmeyer. The Facts Don't Back It Up.
There's a television ad running in the NV-02 Republican primary right now that looks a voter in the eye and says James Settelmeyer “sold us out.”
It features Fred Funderburgh, a Texas man who lost his son Billy and daughter-in-law Natalee in a 2016 car crash involving an illegal immigrant.
The grief is real. The pain is real. The connection to James Settelmeyer is not.
This Is a Pattern, Not a One-Off
If you've followed this primary, you already know it has been one of the ugliest Nevada conservatives have seen in years.
David Flippo has run a campaign built almost entirely on national hot-button rhetoric. He's told voters his first bill in Congress would be to ban Sharia law.
He's promoted the endorsement of a congressman specifically because that congressman is:
“leading the fight in Congress to BAN SHARIA LAW.”
Nobody in Elko, Fallon, or Fernley is lying awake worrying about Sharia law.
The people of NV-02 deal with water rights, federal land policy, ranching regulations, and the cost of living. A candidate whose marquee legislative promise has nothing to do with any of that isn't talking to Nevada voters. He's performing for a national donor base.
So when the same campaign produces an ad blaming a Nevada legislator for a Texas crash — without bothering to check whether the facts support the claim — it fits the pattern perfectly. Grab something emotionally explosive, attach a Nevada name and hope nobody looks too closely.
The Story Doesn't Hold Up
Fred Funderburgh became a public advocate on immigration after his family's tragedy. His early appearances — including a 2017 Fox News interview — focused squarely on sanctuary city policies and the failure of local governments to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
That was a real policy debate.
The current ad makes a different argument. It points the finger at a Nevada legislator and Nevada's driver's authorization card program. The implication is that Settelmeyer's vote created the conditions for what happened to the Funderburgh family.
But the Flippo campaign is leaving out some important facts.
The Story Doesn't Hold Up
Campuzano had been arrested for drunk driving in Travis County, Texas, in 2011. He served 14 days in jail and was released.
Nevada's driver's authorization card program didn't start until January 1, 2014. Texas's similar program didn't launch until January 1, 2016.
In other words, Campuzano was already driving drunk in Texas years before either state's authorization card program existed. You can't blame a program for behavior that predates it.
And here's the part that really puts the ad in context. Fred Funderburgh himself has been clear about where he thinks the real failure was.
“This guy shouldn't have been here,” Funderburgh said. “He should have been deported after the first DWI.”
That's a deportation argument. That's a sanctuary enforcement argument. It is not an argument about Nevada driver's authorization cards or a Nevada state senator.
On top of that, researchers have not yet been able to confirm whether Campuzano even held a driver's authorization card at the time of the 2016 crash. Records requests to Texas are still pending. The ad presents what is, at best, an unproven assumption as a settled fact.
And early versions of the ad misspelled the family's name as “Funderberg.” If you're going to use a family's worst day as a political weapon, you should at least get their name right.
What “Sold Us Out” Actually Means
The phrase “sold us out” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that commercial. It sounds like a serious charge. It implies betrayal. It's designed to make you feel something.
But what it doesn't do is answer the basic question: what specific action by James Settelmeyer caused the deaths of Billy and Natalee Funderburgh?
If there's no clean answer to that — and there isn't — then the ad isn't accountability. It's manipulation.
Nevada conservatives should expect more from a candidate asking for their vote. Grabbing national outrage wherever it flares up — Sharia law this week, a Texas tragedy the next — and slapping a Nevada label on it is not a policy agenda.
The Lies Don't Stop There
The Funderburgh ad isn't the only place this campaign has twisted the facts to trigger an emotional reaction.
Laura Loomer — the Florida firebrand who has made a career out of outrage — has been spreading a claim on social media that Settelmeyer voted to put tampons in boys' bathrooms at Nevada schools.
It isn't true.
The claim traces back to a fringe Las Vegas website. Loomer picked it up and blasted it to her national following.
That's how the sausage gets made in the age of social media politics — somebody writes something inflammatory, somebody with a big megaphone amplifies it, and suddenly it's “news.”
🚨 ATTENTION NEVADA 🚨
Nevada Republican Congressional candidate James Settelmeyer @SettelmeyerNV voted for a 2021 bill that required TAMPONS to be placed in boys bathrooms at Nevada schools.
The Nevada primary is June 9, 2026!
No more RINOS! https://t.co/Qvoq8IszY7
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 26, 2026
Here's what actually happened. In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed Assembly Bill 224. It created a pilot program to provide free menstrual products in lower-income schools. Nothing in the bill mentioned boys' bathrooms. Not one word.
Here's how controversial it was: the Nevada Senate passed it 21 to 0. Not a single senator voted against it. Every Republican. Every Democrat. Unanimous.
That's the vote being sold to Nevada conservatives as a scandal.
This is the playbook. Sharia law. A Texas tragedy. A tampon lie passed around by a Florida loudmouth. None of it has anything to do with water rights, federal land, rural healthcare, or the cost of living in northern Nevada. It's all heat and no light — designed to make you angry, not informed.
What Voters Should Actually Know About James Settelmeyer
The attacks only work if voters don't know who James Settelmeyer actually is. 
He is a fifth-generation Nevada rancher with 16 years of service as a legislator who rose to Senate Minority Leader.
He voted no on the still-controversial 2015 Commerce Tax — one of only three who voted in opposition.
When Democrats tried to quietly extend over $105 million in business taxes in 2019 without the constitutionally required two-thirds vote, Settelmeyer didn't just complain about it on the floor and go home. He led eight Senate Republicans in filing suit against Governor Sisolak and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro.
He personally footed the bill for the litigation after the Legislative Counsel Bureau deemed enforcing the constitution a partisan endeavor.
And, he won. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Democratic leaders had knowingly violated the Nevada Constitution. The illegally collected money was returned to Nevadans.
When Sisolak locked Nevada's churches to 50 people while letting Las Vegas casinos run at half capacity during the pandemic, Settelmeyer was part of the fight that pushed the Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Justice Samuel Alito said it plainly in his dissent:
“The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. It says nothing about freedom to play craps or blackjack.”
In February 2021, Settelmeyer stood on the floor of the legislature and demanded Democrats let the public back into the People's House when they tried to lock Nevadans out of the session — allowing only lobbyists through the door.
And when he termed out of the Senate, Governor Lombardo appointed him to lead on mining policy — one of the most consequential issues in this district and an imperative industry for the state.
Nevada voters deserve better than a campaign that treats them like they can't tell the difference between a real issue and a social media fire drill. The broad coalition supporting Settelmeyer is unmoved by the theatrics coming from beltway money and out-of-state megaphones.
They know who James is. They've seen what he does when it counts.
The primary is June 9th. Vote on what's real.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
