Nevada
Several winners declared in ‘surprisingly efficient’ Nevada primary election
GOP frontrunner Sam Brown won his Senate primary race Tuesday, bringing about a November match-up between himself and Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in what is expected to be a closely watched and competitive Senate race.
Brown, who received both Gov. Joe Lombardo’s and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, had about 59 percent of the votes as of 11:40 p.m., according to The Associated Press, which called the race shortly after 8 p.m. Dr. Jeff Gunter was in second, with former Assemblyman Jim Marchant in third.
“I’m thankful to everyone who propelled us to victory tonight, and I invite all Nevadans to stand with us as we work toward victory in November,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday night.
Nevada’s primary Tuesday saw lower voter turnout than previous primaries, but results were called relatively quickly — a sign the battleground state known for slow production of results could be turning a new leaf.
Besides the Senate race, voters cast their ballots for primary contests up and down the ballot, including in races for Las Vegas mayor, Clark County School Board and a host of other local government seats.
In the Las Vegas Mayor’s race, Shelley Berkley led with 35.3 percent of the vote as on 11:40 p.m. Councilwoman Victoria Seaman trailed by 29.5 percent, followed by Councilman Cedric Crear 18.7 percent. If no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.
Competitive House races also results come in late Tuesday night. Conservative policy analyst Drew Johnson won the primary in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District — which saw a crowded GOP field with some well-known names, including former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien and ‘Halo’ composer Marty O’Donnell. He will face Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in November.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Mark Robertson will get another chance at defeating longtime Democratic Rep. Dina Titus. Robertson, who previously ran against Titus in 2022, won his primary race Tuesday night, receiving 48.4 percent of the vote to restaurateur Flemming Larsen’s 39 percent as of 11:40 p.m.
Former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee was leading in the GOP primary for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District. He had received 48.1 percent of the votes, while David Flippo received 45.4 percent, as of 11 p.m.
Batches of results were released within about an hour after the polls closed, earlier than previous years.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar had made it a goal to release results more quickly and notified county clerks to begin tabulating early votes and mail ballots at 8 a.m. on Election Day, and be ready to release those first batches as soon as all the polls closed.
“I thought today was a much smoother process, you know, getting that information out to Nevada voters,” Aguilar said Tuesday night in a press call. “That’s our goal is constantly looking at state law, looking at the statute and saying, ‘How can we improve these efficiencies? How can we improve these processes so that we’re getting information to the Nevada voter?”
Lower turnout
Nevada saw lower voter turnout than previous years.
In early voting and through mail ballots, 257,344 Nevadans voted, representing 12.9 percent of Nevada’s total electorate. By the close of polls on Election Day, nearly 68,000 more Nevadans had voted, bringing it to about 16 percent of Nevada’s total electorate.
In the 2020 primary, 29.5 percent of registered voters participated, although that election was conducted entirely through absentee ballots. The 2022 primary saw a nearly 26 percent turnout. The 2016 primary saw a total turnout of 18.5 percent and an Election Day turnout of nearly 39 percent.
Aguilar does not know why there was a low turnout, but said everybody has a lot going on.
“I can say the November election is going to be super competitive,” Aguilar said. “Nevada is going to have a significant role in the national election, and I hope Nevadans recognize the value of their vote.”
‘Surprisingly efficient’
Nevadans set out to vote across the valley, where temperatures reached 107 degrees in certain areas Tuesday afternoon.
While voter turnout was lower than in previous years, those who cast a ballot expressed enthusiasm.
Nina Ageef, 97, and her daughter Radha Ageef voted in Tuesday’s primary for Gunter in the Senate race. They said they’re excited to vote in November for Trump.
Former Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan, 86, voted at the Sahara West Library and plans to vote for Rosen and Lee in hopes of securing a Democratic majority in Congress to counteract Trump’s influence if he is elected.
“I think that a threat to our democracy is the overriding, the most important issue to me,” said Bryan, who also served as a U.S. senator from 1989 to 2001.
In Henderson, City Council Ward 2 candidate Monica Larson filmed a video on her cellphone for her supporters after voting at Sun City Anthem’s community center.
Her brief voting experience, she said, was “very efficient, surprisingly efficient, so I really enjoyed it.”
“Painless,” the candidate added.
Larson said people feel powerless when it comes to elected officials’ decisions.
“The only way to create change is to exercise your vote,” she said. “That’s your weapon. Vote.”
Tuesday was some Southern Nevadans’ first time voting, like Las Vegas resident Benjamin Vinocur.
“Democracy is on the line this year,” Vinocur, 18, said.
Vinocur said it’s important for young people to vote because youth are underrepresented in politics. He said he voted because Trump is on the ballot again and Project 2025 concerns him.
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, would aim to reshape the federal government if a Republican wins the 2024 presidential race.
“This Project 25 stuff scares the hell out of me,” he said.
Vinocur listed democracy and reproductive rights as top concerns, and “if I had to say a third one, just because I don’t like Trump,” he said at the Cambridge Recreation Center, 3930 Cambridge St.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X. Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on X. Staff writers Annie Vong, Ella Thompson and Ricardo Torres-Cortez contributed to this report.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevadans are choosing their party nominees Tuesday for two closely watched congressional seats and the governor’s race, among others, as the state grapples with an affordable housing shortage, exploding energy demand from data centers and federal cuts to key state programs.
The state has a closed primary, meaning only registered Democrats and Republicans will vote in party contests after an effort to open them up failed in 2024.
Several primaries feature matchups between candidates backed by party leaders and political outsiders promising change. Come November, the governor’s race is considered one of the most competitive in the country, and holding on to the 3rd Congressional District is considered crucial for Democrats’ hope of retaking the U.S. House.
Here’s a look at the most prominent races:
Democrats seek a rival for Lombardo
Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, is considered one of the most vulnerable governors in the country this fall.
The Democrats vying to challenge him include state Attorney General Aaron Ford, who has the backing of the Democratic congressional delegation and former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Alexis Hill, a county commissioner in northern Nevada who campaigned as a candidate willing to shake things up.
They focused their campaigns on affordability, as the state continues to see a shortage of affordable housing, some of the highest gas prices in the country and cuts to federal healthcare and food assistance programs.
Ford largely ignored Hill, instead directing his attacks at Lombardo and arguing that both the governor and Trump are responsible for Nevadans’ economic woes. He is trying to become Nevada’s first Black governor.
2nd Congressional District
In the Republican contest to replace longtime Rep. Mark Amodei, who is retiring, President Donald Trump has endorsed David Flippo, a loyalist of the president who has never held elected office. Amodei and Lombardo have backed James Settelmeyer, a former state senator with a long political track record.
The district covers northern Nevada and includes Reno and Carson City, the capital, along with an immense rural expanse.
Trump-endorsed candidates have seen successful in primaries elsewhere, underscoring his unrivaled power over the Republican Party as he enters the last years of his presidency. He easily won the district in the 2024 presidential election.
The GOP nominee has a good chance of winning in November, as registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000 in the 2nd District. A Republican has held the seat since the district was created in the 1980s.
Still, Democrats hope to entice the large number of nonpartisan voters in the district this fall. Their candidates include Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former majority floor leader of the Nevada Assembly, and Greg Kidd, an investor who ran in the last cycle as a nonpartisan.
3rd Congressional District
Nevada’s other three members of Congress, all Democrats, are expected to win their primaries easily.
In the 3rd District, Republicans are battling to determine who will face Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in what is considered the most competitive congressional district in Nevada because of its narrow Democratic registration advantage, its high number of nonpartisan voters and a history of razor-thin election margins. In 2024 both Lee and Trump won narrowly.
Candidates include Trump-backed Marty O’Donnell, a composer who worked on the “Halo” video game series and ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2024; Jeff Gunter, a dermatologist and former ambassador to Iceland; neurosurgeon Aury Nagy; and businessperson Tera Anderson.
The candidates ran on border security, energy independence and decreasing the federal debt.
Attorney general
With Ford term-limited and running for governor, the opening has prompted competitive primaries for the state’s top law enforcement post.
The Democratic side features state Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Treasurer Zach Conine. Both campaigned on promises to take on the Trump administration, following in the footsteps of Ford, who filed numerous lawsuits against the federal government.
For the Republicans, Trump-backed attorney Adriana Guzmán Fralick faces Douglas County commissioner Danny Tarkanian. Tarkanian, son of legendary University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, previously ran unsuccessfully in multiple congressional races.
Both candidates campaigned on “election integrity,” casting doubt on voting security. Nevada is one of the swing states in which Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, despite officials finding no evidence of widespread fraud.
Tarkanian promised to investigate voter fraud allegations, while Guzmán Fralick vowed to seek passage of the SAVE Nevada Act, which would be similar to changes Trump has sought at the federal level.
Her legislation would require all votes to be counted on Election Day, end universal mail ballots and eliminate automatic voter registration. It would almost certainly hit a dead end in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
GOP secretary of state candidates question Nevada’s elections
Several Republicans are running for secretary of state, the office that oversees elections, including some who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The winner of the primary will take on Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.
The GOP candidates include Jim Marchant, a former state lawmaker and perennial candidate who has said the 2020 election “was probably stolen”; Sharron Angle, a former state lawmaker who was part of an effort to block the certification of Nevada’s 2020 election results; and Shirley Folkins-Roberts, an attorney who received Lombardo’s endorsement and has denied there is widespread fraud in Nevada’s elections.
All the candidates support implementing voter ID, which will be on the ballot for the second time in November after the question passed by a wide margin in 2024.
Angle promises to enforce voter ID if voters pass it and supports Trump’s executive order seeking to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote. The courts have so far halted that order, issued last year, from taking effect.
Marchant wants to eliminate electronic voting machines and end the state’s universal mail ballot system. He also wants to require paper ballots, which would be counted by hand, according to his campaign website.
Folkins-Roberts said she will work to keep voter rolls accurate and up-to-date, require voter ID and ensure that election results are delivered on time. She also wants to reverse the automatic voter registration system. In an interview with News 4 Reno, Folkins-Roberts said she believes Nevada’s elections are “good,” but wants to improve voters’ confidence by making changes.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — We’ll start the week with a heightened fire danger with dangerous heat later this week.
TODAY
Expect mostly sunny skies with winds picking up again on Monday. High temperatures will reach 98 degrees in Las Vegas with south winds 10-20 mph and wind gusts up to 30 mph.
A RED FLAG WARNING is in place from 10am to 9pm Monday for gusty winds and dry weather, so if a fire started, it would spread quickly.
Winds are estimated to be 20-25 mph with gusts around 40 mph at times with relative humidity of 5%-15%.
Air quality is ranked ‘good’ to ‘moderate’ for dust and tree pollen. The most common pollens are juniper, cedar, willow, sycamore and palm.
TONIGHT
We’ll see variable clouds this evening with skies going from mostly cloudy to mostly clear overnight.
Wind gusts will pick up again before midnight with gusts 30-40 mph possible downslope of the Spring Mountains in the west valley.
Elsewhere, gusts will be 20-30 mph. Breezes will eventually back down to 5-15 mph overnight. Valley lows will drop to around 74 degrees.
WHAT’S NEXT
We have reached 109 consecutive days without measurable rain in Las Vegas.
No rain is in sight, but for perspective, June is the driest month of the year in Las Vegas. Fingers crossed on a hopefully more active monsoon season!
High pressure builds next with highs 5-10 degrees above normal. Temperatures will reach around 108 degrees in Las Vegas by Friday. The last time we hit a high temperature of 108 degrees was back on August 20th of last year.
Not much relief is in sight by the weekend with highs around 107 degrees and temps at or above 105-106 degrees NEXT Monday through Wednesday.
Growing DNA databases continue to unlock decades-old cold cases. How the DNA Doe Project helped to identify remains 37 years later.
© KSNV, NBC News Channel
-
Sports5 minutes ago
Mexico and South Africa face off again to open World Cup after 16 years of challenges
-
World13 minutes agoAlbania’s PM posts AI video of himself in bra in swipe at influencers
-
News38 minutes agoMaine’s Senate race and much more. Here are the primary contests to watch today
-
New York2 hours agoVideo: Spurs Beat Knicks, Quieting New York City Crowds
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoIn-N-Out Burger opens new flagship location on Las Vegas Strip
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoMan arrested for concealing gun in baby stroller
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoFatal stabbing leads to fines at SF hospital
-
Dallas, TX3 hours agoAdditional Mosquito Samples in Dallas, Carrollton Test Positive for West Nile Virus
