Here We Go Again
Polls haven't even closed yet in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, and one side may already be warming up the grievance machine.
David Flippo and his allies are pointing to Spencer Pratt's loss in the Los Angeles mayoral race as a warning sign. The message: if it can happen to Pratt in LA, it can happen here. So NV-02 Republicans need to make this primary “too big to rig.”
There's just one problem with that comparison. It doesn't hold up at all.
What Actually Happened in Los Angeles
Spencer Pratt — the reality TV personality from The Hills — ran a surprisingly strong race for mayor of Los Angeles.
He lost his home in the Pacific Palisades wildfire. He got in the race to fight for his community. He was running in second place as of early Wednesday morning after election night. Then more ballots came in, and he slipped to third.
Give the man credit. He ran a gutsy campaign in one of the most Democratic-dominated cities in America. He has a bright future in conservative politics if he wants one.
But nobody should be shocked that a Republican didn't win a Los Angeles primary. That city has been a one-party town for decades.
Here's the question worth asking: What does a Democrat-machine city with four million voters and a non-partisan open primary have to do with a closed Republican primary in rural Nevada?
The answer is nothing.
But, Flippo isn't the only one pointing to Pratt's Los Angeles loss and giving election warnings for Northern Nevada. Flippo supporter and prominent Reno political figure Joey Gilbert is using nearly identical rhetoric on his social media.
The 2022 Playbook — Remember This?
In 2022, attorney and boxer Joey Gilbert ran against Joe Lombardo in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Gilbert lost. He refused to accept it. He sued, claiming the race was stolen.
That lawsuit was bankrolled by Robert Beadles — a Northern Nevada crypto entrepreneur with a long history of funding election challenges and conspiracy-adjacent political activity in Nevada.
The lawsuit went nowhere. Because the election wasn't stolen. Lombardo won. End of story.
The damage didn't stop there. Gilbert had been promoting Mindy Robinson — a Libertarian candidate running in Assembly District 35 — as part of his political network.
Robinson pulled 902 votes in that race. Republican Tiffany Jones lost to the Democrat incumbent by just 382 votes. Robinson's votes were more than double the margin of defeat.
That one race cost Republicans a seat they needed, and Democrats ended up with an Assembly supermajority as a result — a supermajority that spent the next two years blocking Governor Lombardo's agenda at every turn.
When Robinson lost, she claimed her race was rigged, too. But this time, the conspiracy theory claimed nefarious election officials gave her too many votes to make it look like she cost the race for the Republicans.
Like any allegation of election fraud, Nevada Republicans were expected to accept that story, hook, line, and sinker. Robinson by way of Gilbert's powerful endorsement, didn't serve us a superminority: Bad guys did it in the dark of night.
Gilbert was never accountable for any of it.
Now, Joey Gilbert has endorsed David Flippo in the NV-02 race. And Flippo's own social media is already echoing the same kind of pre-loss rhetoric, telling voters:
“You see what they are doing to Spencer Pratt down in LA— Los Angeles, stealing this deal from Spencer Pratt.”
Gilbert went on to tell viewers that “Pratt blew that Nithya Raman out of the water” and claimed they were terrified that Pratt would beat Karen Bass in November, and therefore “thou shalt not pass” in the primary.
Gilbert also claimed that who Trump endorses is very important to him. That's a convenient position.
Trump came to Las Vegas on July 8, 2022 — just three weeks after the primary — to rally for Lombardo while Gilbert was still refusing to concede and the recount was underway. Gilbert's supporters showed up outside with protest signs.
Apparently, Trump's endorsement only matters when it goes the “right way.”
What's Actually Happening in NV-02
This race has been between Flippo and former state Senator James Settelmeyer — a guy who actually lives in the district and has deep roots in Northern Nevada.
Settelmeyer earned the endorsement of Governor Lombardo and outgoing Congressman Mark Amodei, the man who held this seat for nearly 15 years.
Flippo came in with outside money, a Trump endorsement, Club for Growth backing, and a campaign that essentially parachuted into the race after originally running in a different district entirely.
If Settelmeyer wins, it won't be because the race was rigged. It will be because NV-02 Republicans looked at both candidates and chose the local guy. That's called representation.
The Insult Hidden in the Rhetoric
Here's what bothers me most about this.
When a campaign starts planting “stolen election” seeds before the votes are even counted, they're not just preparing a legal strategy. They're sending a message to every Republican voter in NV-02: your vote doesn't count unless it goes our way.
These are real voters — ranchers, small business owners, veterans, families — in Elko, Douglas, Carson City, Washoe, and everywhere in between. They don't need some outside-funded operation telling them their own primary was corrupt because it didn't produce the result the big-money guys wanted.
CD2 is not Los Angeles. These voters aren't marks. They have a voice. And if they vote for the local guy, that voice deserves to be respected.
Nevada Republicans Have Been Through Enough
Our party has spent years fighting off bad-faith election conspiracy theories. Some of those theories have hurt real candidates, divided real coalitions, and handed ammunition to Democrats who love nothing more than watching Republicans eat each other.
Nevada passed Question 7 in 2024. Voter ID is on the way to being secured in the state Constitution if it passes again in November.
Our election integrity efforts should be focused on real, documented problems — not on manufacturing grievances when an out-of-district candidate with outside money stands to lose a fair fight. And that's before you account for the smear campaign and the leaking of sealed documents.
Pass voter ID. Stop the fake stolen election claims. Let NV-02 voters have their say.
What to Watch For
If the results from tonight's election don't go Flippo's way, watch for the machinery to spin up fast. Watch for Beadles-adjacent social media. Watch for language about irregularities, late counts, and suspicious patterns. Watch for a lawsuit.
And when it happens, remember: you were warned.
NV-02 Republicans don't owe anyone a particular outcome. They owe each other an honest count, and they deserve to have that count respected.
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.
