Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Q+A: Voters’ guide for the District 2 election and Mark Amodei

Mark Amodei

Cathleen Allison / AP

Mark Amodei speaks at a victory party in Reno, Nev., Sept. 13, 2011, after defeating Democrat Kate Marshall in a special election for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District.

In the midst of news of a massive Tesla factory coming to Northern Nevada, the region’s voters will decide this fall whether to re-elect their representative in Congress, Mark Amodei.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Amodei, who has held the seat since 2011. Not that he needs the help. The mostly rural district is solidly Republican.

He does have a Democratic challenger and a third-party challenger, but, much like Rep. Dina Titus’ campaign in District 1, his challengers lack name recognition, validity and money.

Here's a voters' guide to the race for District 2.

Where is District 2?

District 2 encompasses the northern third of Nevada. It’s mostly rural, so the majority of the district’s constituents live in Carson City and Reno.

The seat has been held by a Republican since its creation in the early 1980s.

Who’s running in District 2?

Amodei won the seat in a special election to replace now-Sen. Dean Heller, who left the district to replace outgoing (and disgraced) Sen. John Ensign. Amodei is probably best described as a moderate Republican, although he’s been called a member of the Tea Party. He votes with the Republican Party most of the time, most recently to allow the House to sue the president. He supports immigration reform and has called on House Republican leaders to take action. He was also a Nevada assemblyman and senator.

His Democratic challenger is Kristen Spees, an Incline Village attorney in the family business of estate planning. She did not return a request for comment, but her campaign website said she’s running as a fiscally conservative Democrat.

Janine Hansen of Elko is running as an independent “protest candidate,” her website says.

What are the major issues?

Amodei’s challengers say on their campaign sites they’ll help government run more efficiently.

But the race is largely Amodei’s to dictate. He says his focus is on getting long-term unemployed Americans back to work and helping veterans. He wants to fix what he calls the negative effects of the 2010 health care reform law. And he's working on federal land issues such as streamlining federal mining permits and the sage grouse and its possible endangered species listing. He also keeps an eye on federal spending, which he says is out of control.

What’s been the biggest news of the race?

The announcement that electric car maker Tesla will build a massive battery factory outside Reno is pretty big. But it won’t affect the race. If anything, it could help Amodei’s stature in the district if he takes some credit for helping bring as many as 6,500 jobs to Northern Nevada.

Who are the biggest supporters of the candidates?

Amodei is the former chairman of the state Republican Party, so he has the support of the party and his fellow Republican leaders, Gov. Brian Sandoval and Heller.

Spees doesn’t have any endorsements the Sun could find.

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