Dan Schwartz, Nevada state treasurer and Republican candidate for governor, speaks during a gubernatorial candidates accountability session with Nevadans for the Common Good at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Summerlin Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024 | 12:21 p.m.
Former Republican state Treasurer Dan Schwartz announced on Wednesday a bid to challenge Nevada Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee. Schwartz is joining the GOP primary field after the presumed frontrunner to challenge Lee dropped out of the race earlier this month.
Schwartz, 73, served as treasurer from 2015 to 2019 and pledged a personal $1 million contribution to his campaign, according to a news release announcing his candidacy.
His platform includes tax reform, term limits for Congress and federal courts, bolstering military and public service recruitment. He has also proposed to “close the borders” until Congress passes immigration reform.
“Today, our country needs a reboot, and that change needs to start right here in Nevada,” Schwartz said in a statement. “I’m not afraid to take on the system, and I’m ready to take that fight to Washington.”
Schwartz’s entry into the race comes nearly two weeks after Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, announced she was dropping her U.S. House bid.
Kasama said she would instead focus on winning another term in the Nevada Legislature, where Democrats are one seat shy in the state Senate of a veto-proof supermajority.
Kasama, 65, had earned the endorsement of Gov. Joe Lombardo, but said during her Jan. 4 announcement she believed her service would be better suited helping Lombardo, a Republican, in the Legislature.
Other GOP challengers to Lee include conservative commentator Drew Johnson, former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien and Steve London.
A graduate of Princeton University, Columbia University and Boston University, Schwartz also served two years in the U.S. Army beginning in 1972 before a decades-long career in finance. Schwartz was finance chairman for the Nevada Republican Party from 2012 to 2014.
Schwartz made headlines in 2015 when he publicly questioned then-Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed state budget.
He was also a vocal proponent of establishing the state’s education savings accounts — vouchers that allow taxpayer dollars to be used for private education.
That resulted in a 2016 flare-up between then-Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, who had filed a lawsuit in his private capacity challenging the legality of the program, and Schwartz, who called on Hutchison to drop his lawsuit or resign. Hutchison eventually dropped the suit.
Schwartz was also a skeptic of a Chinese-backed automotive startup that sought $335 million in incentives to build a plant in North Las Vegas — a project the company ultimately backed out of in 2018.
Schwartz also received criticism after hiring Michael McDonald, who is now Nevada GOP chairman, as a senior deputy treasurer in 2015. After serving in the role for about three months, McDonald resigned in October of that year.
“I’ve been called every name in the book by career politicians in Carson City, because I wasn’t afraid to stand up to them, and fight for kids, parents, and taxpayers,” Schwartz said in his statement. “I never ducked. I never backed down. And I never will. And they know it. We deserve better.”
Schwartz lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Yanan, and has two daughters.
