Nevada Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama unexpectedly announced Thursday that she would run for reelection rather than continue her campaign against Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, a move that deprives Republicans of their only serious candidate for the 3rd Congressional District.
But Kasama, who picked up endorsements last year from Gov. Joe Lombardo and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, may not have been serious enough for the GOP establishment. An unnamed source tells the Nevada Independent that the assemblywoman, who self-funded more than half of the $337,000 she brought in during the third quarter of 2023, struggled to raise money.
Republicans have until the March 15 filing deadline to find a new contender, and they’ll almost certainly need one if they want to unseat Lee in a seat that Joe Biden carried 52-46. The current GOP field includes former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien, who resigned in 2012 after spending only 15 months in office, and conservative columnist Drew Johnson. Both candidates have also proven to be weak fundraisers, and neither has attracted much attention in this seat in the southwestern Las Vegas area. The primary will take place on June 11.
Kasama, for her part, argued she had to bail to defend her Assembly seat, which favored Donald Trump 50-49 in 2020, with Democrats just inches away from being able to override Lombardo’s vetoes. Democrats hold a 28-14 supermajority in the lower chamber―exactly the proportion required to override the governor―but they need to net one more seat to hit that threshold in the state Senate.
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