VICTOR JOECKS: Nevada’s Mr. Bean leaves Washington

Rep. Mark Amodei appears to be trying out for a reality TV show entitled, “How to fail in politics without really trying.”

Amodei represents Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Reno and much of rural Nevada. He is retiring at the end of his term and has endorsed former state senator James Settelmeyer to fill his seat. That looks unlikely after President Donald Trump unexpectedly endorsed David Flippo during the middle of early voting. Heading into Tuesday’s primary election, Flippo is now the favorite.

That’s the short version. The details reveal how, in Inspector Clouseau-like fashion, Amodei has undercut Settelmeyer at every turn.

Start with Amodei’s retirement announcement. Politically, Amodei wasn’t in any danger. CD2 is a safe red seat. Its voters love Trump, who endorsed Amodei last November. Amodei would have cruised to re-election. Instead, he shocked the Nevada political world on Feb. 6 by announcing his retirement.

He then signaled that he wouldn’t endorse a candidate in the primary. That set off a furious behind-the-scenes scramble as potential candidates jockeyed for support. Candidate filing opened on March 2. That’s almost no time to get a campaign off the ground. Most strong congressional candidates start running the summer before an election year.

Unless you can self-fund, it takes time to raise money. After raising money, it takes time to spend money to introduce yourself to voters, especially when early voting started May 23.

Then the White House froze the field by signaling Trump’s support for former GOP Senate nominee Sam Brown. Every serious candidate knew that a Trump endorsement was the golden ticket in CD2. Brown enjoyed the attention, hamming it up with X posts that insinuated he was preparing to run. But Brown eventually passed, announcing his decision after filing opened.

Settelmeyer then jumped in the race, along with Flippo, who had been running to represent the 4th Congressional District.

Normally, it’d have been easy for Settelmeyer to paint Flippo as a carpetbagger. This appears to have been a major concern for Amodei. He soon decided that he did want a say on his replacement and endorsed Settelmeyer. Gov. Joe Lombardo also endorsed Settelmeyer.

But the timing of Amodei’s decision meant Settelmeyer didn’t have campaign funds ready to go after filing. Settelmeyer was a longtime state legislator, but his term ended in 2022. That presented a challenge. On the other hand, Flippo had already been raising money and could self-fund. This gave him the cash to introduce himself to voters.

As of May 20, Settelmeyer had spent less than $180,000. Flippo’s total spending topped $1.5 million. Even accounting for Flippo previously running for CD4, that’s a massive financial disparity.

If Trump stayed out, this would have been an interesting race. Could an outsider beat a political insider by significantly outspending him?

And then Amodei gave Settelmeyer one more bit of Mr. Magoo-inspired assistance. Freed from having to run for re-election, Amodei started criticizing Trump. He recently accused the White House of not providing enough “consistency” and “predictability.”

Trump then did something no one predicted. He endorsed Flippo, instantly making him the favorite in CD2. From what I’ve heard, Trump did that in direct response to Amodei’s criticisms.

This episode is emblematic of Amodei’s tenure. Although well-liked by his constituents, he didn’t use his safe seat as a strategic asset to build up the conservative movement in Nevada. That lack of strategic thinking may cause the man he wanted to succeed him to lose. Mr. Bean couldn’t have scripted it better.