James Settelmeyer, a fourth-generation Nevadan and Douglas County rancher who served as a state legislator for 16-years, is the front-runner in the heavily Republican 2nd Congressional District to replace the retiring Rep. Mark Amodei.
CD 2 is the largest congressional district in Nevada covering the entire northern third of the state – from Reno and Carson City out to Elko and White Pine counties.
Elected to the Assembly in 2006 and the state Senate in 2010 (representing Churchill, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties), Settelmeyer, 55, served as the Senate Republican leader from 2018 until termed out in 2022.
Appointed by Governor Joe Lombardo in 2023 as director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Settelmeyer stepped down to run for Congress.
In a field of 15 Republican candidates, Settelmeyer has a long history of service in Northern Nevada and is the only one with legislative experience.
In the legislature, Settelmeyer had a solidly conservative record, earning the highest recognition on gun rights and protecting Nevada’s land and water. He rated perfect scores for fighting overregulation and was one of the most fiscally conservative senators in Nevada history.
Also in the race is David Flippo, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Las Vegas.
In 2022, he ran for Assembly District 37 (Las Vegas) and lost, coming in third out of three Republicans in the primary. In 2024, Flippo ran in the 4th Congressional District (Southern Nevada) and lost that primary, too. He decided to run in CD 4 again in 2026.
Then Amodei announced his retirement, and Flippo switched to CD 2, a district he didn’t even live in.
Other Republicans in the field include former Eureka County Sheriff Jesse Watts and Dr. Fred Simon, who lost the GOP primary to Amodei in 2024.
Watts has gone on offense, labeling Flippo as “Flipping Flippo” for swapping races.
Simon bluntly called out Flippo in an April 2 debate:
“You’re not from here, you don’t know the issues from here. So go back carpetbagger.”
Candidates for Congress are not legally required to live within the congressional district they seek to represent. The U.S. Constitution only requires candidates for congressional office to live in the state where they run for office.
However, you can’t represent a place you don’t know.
In a major boost, Lombardo and Amodei, the state’s two most prominent Republicans, offered strong Settelmeyer endorsements.
Having promised not to intervene in the primary, Amodei explained his change of mind.
“Our next member of Congress should not be a 30-day ‘move in’ backed by a Vegas paid manager,” Amodei wrote. “This is the only business where those who love to mislead can take any voting record and turn it into their talking points.”
Settelmeyer’s campaign released a list of more than 100 Nevada leaders backing his Congressional campaign.
In addition to Lombardo and Amodei, it includes a broad coalition of Nevada leaders—seven sitting state senators, a dozen state assembly members, mayors from Elko to Sparks, sheriffs, county commissioners, business leaders, former Governor List, former Lt. Governor Krolicki and former state Treasurer Cafferata.
Flippo looks outside Nevada for his support.
He has rolled out endorsements from out-of-state MAGA names including former ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, eight members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus and the Arizona-based Turning Point Action organization.
Settelmeyer raised $105,000 in the first 20 days of his run coming from inside Nevada donations.
Flippo has a massive self-funding campaign. He reported raising $785,000, however almost all of that ($760,000) are loans Flippo made to his own campaign.
On March 27, Flippo spoke at CPAC and attacked Settelmeyer as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by falsely misrepresenting his voting record.
Caveat Emptor for Nevada Republicans: Real conservatives do their homework; they will need to verify whatever talking points land in their feed.
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