Nevada: Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions

View the entire Election Denial in Races for Election Administration Positions series

Below, we compile quotes from campaigns’ ads, websites, social media posts, and statements reported in the media that illustrate endorsement or opposition to election denial — claims that the process or result of the last presidential election was illegitimate. Each of the candidates is running for an office that will play a role in administering future elections in Nevada. Information about the financing of these campaigns and those in other battleground states can be found here.

Governor

Michele Fiore (withdrew to run for state treasurer)

Michele Fiore (R), a member of the Las Vegas City Council, said in a February primary debate that Trump is the “rightful president of the United States. . . . There was voter fraud, and he won Nevada.” In a campaign ad, Fiore lists “stop voter fraud” as one point in her three-point plan.

Joey Gilbert (lost primary)

Joey Gilbert (R), who was endorsed by the Nevada Repub­lican Party but lost the primary, defen­ded his claims the elec­tion was stolen in a May inter­view, arguing there were “six states that shut our count­ing down for the first time in our nation’s history for weeks,” and, “it’s common sense, [Joe Biden] didn’t get 80 million votes.” Gilbert believes Trump won and is “still our pres­id­ent.” He has tweeted calls to “decer­tify” the 2020 elec­tion. Gilber­t’s campaign sent an email to support­ers that begins, “If our votes don’t count, our repub­lic is doomed.” The email goes on to call on Gilber­­t’s support­ers to serve as poll work­ers, explain­ing: “Watch­ers are only able to witness fraud taking place. Work­ers can stop it when they see it.” Another email claims that errors on voter rolls in 2020 mean “almost HALF of all votes could have been stolen."

Tom Heck (lost primary)

Tom Heck (R) has TV ads in which he declares, “Trump won, Biden lost, Democrats and RINOs stole the 2020 election.” His campaign website describes “a grotesque abuse of our election system nationwide” and includes among Heck’s goals to “End Universal Mail Ballots” and “Create a Citizen-Based Election Oversight Committee.”

Dean Heller (lost primary)

Former U.S. senator Dean Heller (R) said in February that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president, listing among the reasons: donations to help fund election administration in Georgia that originated from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “122,000 contested votes” in Nevada, “ballot harvesting,” and the current Nevada secretary of state’s decision not to conduct a “forensic audit.” He said that “the last time Nevada had a safe, secure elec­tion in this state was when I was secret­ary of state,” which was in 2006.

John Lee (lost primary)

John Lee (R) sent support­ers an email this month that included “the elec­tion wasn’t stolen” on a list of contenders for the “most prepos­ter­ous lie.”

Joe Lombardo (won primary)

Although Clark County Sher­iff Joe Lombardo (R) has acknow­ledged that Biden won, he has ques­tioned whether it was “fair and square.” He has said he didn’t know if the results were accur­ate, and that he believes “there was fraud on both sides.” 

Fred Simon (lost primary)

Gubernat­orial candid­ate Fred Simon (R) claims on his campaign website: “There was massive voter fraud conduc­ted in Clark County in the Novem­ber 2020 elec­tion.” In a radio ad, Simon claimed there was a “mail in ballot voter fraud scheme signed by [Gov. Steve] Sisolak,” and said, “we cannot afford to endure any more fraudu­lent elec­tion cycles.”

Secretary of State

Cisco Aguilar (nominated)

Cisco Aguilar (D), an attor­ney and former staffer for Senator Harry Reid, has criti­cized “false claims of fraud.” Aguilar tweeted in the days after he declared his campaign for secret­ary of state: “Extrem­ists who allege that the 2020 elec­tions were rigged are running as secret­ar­ies of state in several states, includ­ing right here in #Nevada. These indi­vidu­als are a threat to our demo­cracy.” In another tweet, he said, “there was no wide­spread voter fraud in the 2020 elec­tion, and anyone claim­ing other­wise is perpetu­at­ing the Big Lie.”

Kristopher Dahir (lost primary)

Sparks City Councilmember Kristopher Dahir (R) said in a February interview, “There is always some small amount of voter fraud in every election but there wasn’t enough in 2020 to have affected the outcome,” adding, “Biden is the rightfully elected President.” He has defended the conduct of the incumbent secretary of state in the 2020 election. He said, “Nevada does­n’t have any proof” of wide­spread voter fraud and argues primary opponent Jim Marchant has made himself “ineligible for this office saying ‘I would break the law because I didn’t like the results.’”

Jesse Haw (lost primary)

Former State Sen. Jesse Haw (R) has run ads with the tagline, “It’s time to secure our elec­tions.” His campaign website says, “It’s time to restore faith in our elections. The laws put in place by a handful of extreme liberals in Carson City have made it easier to cheat and harder to get caught.” It also charges: “Democrats used COVID as an excuse to change our laws and manipulate the system.”

Jim Marchant (won primary)

Former state Rep. Jim Marchant (R) said: “It’s almost stat­ist­ic­ally impossible that Joe Biden won.” Marchant claims his own 2020 campaign was a “victim of fraud” and has pushed local elec­tion offi­cials to move to hand-coun­ted paper ballots. He said of the 2020 elec­tion, “I believe it was stolen.” He has also said he would not have certi­fied the result of the pres­id­en­­tial elec­­tion. In an inter­view published in Febru­ary, Marchant said of Nevada elec­tions: “We haven’t elec­ted anybody here since 2006. They have been installed and selec­ted by the cabal.” He said on Steve Bannon’s podcast that he is organ­iz­ing a “coali­­tion” of secretary of state candid­ates across the nation “doing some­th­ing behind the scenes to try to fix 2020 like Pres­id­ent Trump said.” That was appar­ently a refer­ence to a group called the Amer­ica First Secret­ary of State Coali­tion and the affil­i­ated Conser­vat­ives for Elec­tion Integ­rity PAC.

 

Richard Scotti (lost primary)

Richard Scotti (R) has claimed Domin­ion voting machines change results, saying “the data they record in the even­ing is never the same in the morn­ing.” He supports moving to paper ballots and conduct­ing partisan reviews like the discred­ited one conduc­ted in Mari­copa County, Arizona.

Nye County Clerk

Ian Bayne (lost primary)

On his campaign website, Ian Bayne (R) promises to “stop election fraud,” “remove voting machines run by foreign companies," and “audit every single election.” On the website’s “Why I’m Running” page, Bayne writes that politicians “encourage voter fraud” and notes, “In 2020, I volunteered with the Trump campaign to stop voter fraud and what I saw was shocking.” In a debate, he said he believes “there is voter fraud all over the place,” and that Trump won the 2020 election.

Andrew Caccavale (lost primary)

In an interview, Andrew Caccavale (R) said there was “voting fraud . . . on a grand scale” in the 2020 presidential election and described organizing a team of volunteers in January, 2022, to look for “tampering, cheating, and outright fraud.” Caccavale’s campaign website promises a vote for him “will put an end to election tampering once and for all.” In a debate, he reportedly said that Trump won the 2020 election.

Mark Kampf (won primary)

Mark Kampf (R) reportedly said in a debate that Trump won the 2020 elec­tion. His campaign website says he was inspired to run by “attacks on our Consti­tu­tional Repub­lic over the last several years.” He has also expressed concerns about drop boxes, citing “2000 Mules,” a movie claim­ing large numbers of people put false ballots in drop boxes.

Storey County Clerk-Treasurer

Jim Hindle (won primary)

Jim Hindle (R) was one of the false electors who purported to pledge Nevada’s Electoral College votes for Trump in 2020. His campaign website presents this as one of his qualifications for election to clerk-treasurer, saying he served as “one of Nevada’s six Republican Presidential Electors.” Another part of his website refers to “the 2020 election controversy” and Hindle’s goal to “restore our confidence in the vote.”

Washoe County Commissioner

Mike Clark (won primary)

When asked if Joe Biden was duly elected in 2020 in an April 2022 interview, Washoe County Assessor Mike Clark (R) responded, “I don’t have any personal knowledge of who won that election.” In March, Clark shared a post saying “your vote doesn’t count,” arguing that the 2020 presidential vote in Washoe County was “mathematically impossible,” and claiming that numbers of registered voters are greater than the actual population. 

Jeanne Herman (won primary)

Washoe County Commissioner Jeanne Herman (R) introduced a since-rejected resolution proposing changes to local election procedures in response to claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election and “cited baseless concerns brought to her by residents about voter fraud and election security issues as her inspiration.” In June, Herman voted against certifying the outcome of the county’s 2022 primary election saying, “I think we missed the boat again,” a reference to the fact that she also voted against certifying the election in 2020. When asked if Joe Biden was duly elected in 2020 in an April 2022 interview, she said, “I’m a Republican and I would’ve liked to see the Republican win, but he didn’t.”

Keith Lockard (unopposed in primary)

In August, Keith Lockard (D) tweeted: “The #GOP opponent in my Washoe County Commission District 2 . . . supports the #BigLie. Our citizens deserve better representation.” Also in August, he tweeted: “I believe in the integrity of Washoe County elections.”

Edwin Lyngar (unopposed in primary)

Edwin Lyngar (D) says one of the prior­it­ies driv­ing his campaign is the need to “fight elec­tion lies.” On his campaign website, Lyngar notes: “There is no evid­ence what­so­ever for the outland­ish lies about the 2020 elec­tion.” Lyngar also posted on Facebook in July about “the ugly fraud behind the Big Lie. The nonstop lies are tearing our community apart for NO reason. Support my campaign and let’s save our local elections and democracy.” In August, Lyngar tweeted: “It’s time to end the election lies.”