Amodei confirms he’s exploring running for governor in 2022

The 2020 elections might just barely be in the rear view mirror, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start talking about the next election cycle.

And that kicks off with Nevada’s congressman from the north, Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, confirming that he is exploring a run for governor in 2022.

“It’s something where quite frankly we’re gonna look at it,” Amodei said when asked about the rumors that he is interested in running for governor during a Vegas Chamber virtual event on Wednesday. Amodei told the group that “many of your members” would be seeing him in the next 30 to 60 days as he explores that possible run.

“We’re going to be down in your neighborhood, as well as some others, taking a look at what that looks like,” Amodei said.

Amodei is one of several Republicans — including former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who ran for the post and lost in 2018 — rumored to be looking at challenging Nevada’s Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, and the congressman alluded to a possible crowded primary field.

‘Made himself vulnerable’

“As any practical person knows, if you’re going to do something like that you have to have a pretty good organization statewide. And you’ve got to get through a primary first, because there will be more than one elephant running around,” Amodei said. “I don’t think it’s news to someone but they think that Gov. Sisolak in some ways has made himself vulnerable to re-election.”

Amodei added that he’s sure Sisolak doesn’t agree with that sentiment, and said that “he’s not going to be disrespectful.”

“So there’s a lot of people kicking tires around, and we’re certainly going to kick our fair share of them in the near future. Because if it’s something you’re going to do, then have to get moving on it,” Amodei said.

This isn’t the first time Amodei’s name has swirled around a statewide race in Nevada.

Dislikes D.C. culture

Speaking during an event in Carson City in 2015, Amodei suggested that he’d like to come back to Nevada from Washington D.C., as opposed to running for U.S. Senate.

“And I’ve got to tell you: The work is important to me but the (Washington, D.C.) culture sucks,” Amodei said. “So if I was ever again going to run for statewide office, it would be for something that was in Carson City.”

But in 2017, he and other rumored GOP candidates like then-Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison announced they wouldn’t run for governor, effectively clearing the field for Laxalt, who would go on to lose to Sisolak in 2018.

A former state lawmaker, Amodei was first elected to Congress in a 2011 special election for the northern Nevada district.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.