Las Vegas (AP) — Former state lawmaker Jim Marchant won the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state on Monday, bringing one of the state’s most outspoken promoters of election conspiracy theories within reach of the office that oversees voting in a perennial presidential battleground.

His win after Nevada’s June 9 primary sets up a rematch in November with Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, who prevailed in their race four years ago.

The winner will oversee the 2028 presidential election in Nevada, a state that went for President Donald Trump in 2024 after voting for Democrat Joe Biden four years earlier.

Marchant has long questioned Nevada’s voting security. He claimed both he and Trump were victims of election fraud in 2020 when Marchant lost his bid for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District against Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, despite officials finding no evidence of any widespread fraud.

He claimed that mail ballots were fraudulent, despite using that method to vote while he was a registered voter in Florida.

In December 2020, he stood alongside the six Nevada Republicans who signed fake electoral certificates claiming Trump won the state — when in fact Biden won Nevada that year by more than 33,000 votes. Those six Republicans continue to face charges filed by the attorney general’s office.

The Nevada secretary of state at the time, a Republican, had her office review multiple claims of fraud submitted by Republicans and found them to be baseless or already under review, specifically refuting thousands of allegations. An Associated Press investigation of potential fraud cases in the six battleground states where Trump disputed his 2020 loss found fewer than 475 overall, far too few to affect the election. In Nevada, the number of possible voter fraud cases represented less than 0.3% of Biden’s margin of victory in the state.

Marchant defeated Gov. Joe Lombardo’s endorsed candidate for secretary of state, Shirley Folkins-Roberts, who had denied there was widespread fraud in Nevada’s elections, and former lawmaker Sharron Angle. Folkins-Roberts conceded the race in a Monday statement.

“Despite being massively outspent in this election, I’m proud to again be chosen by Nevada conservatives to be their champion in the race for Secretary of State,” Marchant said in a statement.

Marchant reported raising and spending no money ahead of the primary. Folkins-Roberts reported spending about $11,000, and Angle reported $20,000 this year, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

If elected, Marchant wants to eliminate electronic voting machines and end the state’s universal mail ballots. He also wants to require paper ballots, which would be counted by hand, according to his campaign website.

Aguilar, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, has promoted his efforts to streamline Nevada’s election processes and improve voter turnout. He also highlighted a bill he successfully helped steer through the Legislature that makes it a felony to harass election officials.

During his tenure, Aguilar spearheaded a transition to a new voter registration and election management system and in 2024 organized a polling location at Allegiant Stadium.

In his statement, Marchant called his win a “victory for voter ID.” He is a staunch supporter of implementing voter ID, a ballot question that passed by a wide margin in 2024 and will be before voters again in November. Aguilar has previously said voter ID is a solution to a problem that does not exist, but also said he respects the will of the voters and will work with the governor and local election officials “to continue strengthening our elections.”

Aguilar’s campaign declined to comment about Marchant’s victory in the GOP primary.

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The Carolina Hurricanes didn’t have to travel far to celebrate their Stanley Cup championship.

Several players were spotted partying at Omnia Nightclub at Caesars Palace early Monday morning, just hours after winning NHL’s championship against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Video captured by the Review-Journal’s John Katsilometes shows someone hoisting the Cup behind a DJ as music and smoke fill the club.

Carolina defeated Vegas 3-0 on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena, just a mile south of Caesars Palace, to win the Stanley Cup Final in six games.

Arguing Kalshi is taking hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers on the World Cup and the NBA and Stanley Cup finals, the Nevada Gaming Control Board Friday asked a district court to hold the prediction market operator in contempt, arguing it hasn’t complied with a May 18 judicial order against offering sports betting in the state.

Filed with the First Judicial District Court for the State of Nevada, the filing accuses Kalshi of not geofencing its operations as required, so that “it does not offer or facilitate the offering of any sports-, election-, or entertainment-related event contracts” to anyone located in Nevada.

“Kalshi’s stubborn refusal to comply with the preliminary injunction is causing severe and ongoing harm to Nevada, its finances, and its citizens,” the court filing said. “Every day, Kalshi takes in hundreds of millions in wagers on such events as the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals and FIFA World Cup. At the same time, Kalshi is severely harming the gaming industry because it refuses to follow the same rules as its licensed sportsbook competitors who actually geofence. This is an intolerable state of affairs. In light of the Board’s investigation and Kalshi’s own admissions that establish its violation of the court order, the court shall hold Kalshi in contempt. Kalshi will never get the message otherwise.”

The Board requested the court to enter a finding of contempt and to impose significant monetary penalties for violation of the court order — either a “disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains” or a sanction of $120,000 a day.

“The court has required Kalshi to stop offering covered event contracts in Nevada,” Board Chair Mike Dreitzer said in a statement. “We will continue to vigorously enforce Nevada law to safeguard gaming in our state.”

In its filing, The Board said that Kalshi by its own admission has spent $190,000 on what regulators referred to as a “homegrown solution that relies only on internet protocol geofencing solutions” that regulators called “notoriously unreliable” for determining user’s locations. The Board accuses Kalshi of being unwilling to use accurate commercial geofencing solutions.

“This is just more from the same old Kalshi playbook; delay, delay, delay,” the court filing said. “Rather than comply with the court’s order Kalshi has taken only a half-hearted and ineffective measure, apparently hoping that the court will deem its meager efforts good enough, so that it can continue profiting at the expense of the state and its citizens.”

The Board said investigators were able to purchase sports betting contracts on Kalshi’s app for NBA playoff games, MLB games, a boxing match, a tennis match, and a celebrity wedding.

The Board has taken action in recent months to halt the operations of other prediction markets in the state and has successfully restricted all unlicensed prediction markets that had been known to be operating in Nevada, Dreitzer said.

The Board considers the offering of sports event contracts, along with certain other event contracts to constitute wagering activity under state law, meaning they must be licensed.

“Nevada’s public policy, as expressed by the Legislature, is that the gaming industry is vitally important to the economy of the state and the general welfare of the inhabitants and therefore must be licensed, controlled, and assisted to protect the public health, safety, morals, good order, and general welfare of the inhabitants of the state,” Dreitzer said.