Conservatives winning Nevada constitutional office races

Conservative Republican candidates appear to have won races for Nevada’s constitutional offices on Tuesday, according to results posted by the Nevada secretary of state.

Vote totals include early and Election Day in-person voting, and mail ballots received and counted up until the election. Results could change, however, as mail ballots postmarked by Election Day are received and counted by the county.

Secretary of state

Of the seven Republican candidates for secretary of state, all wanted to in some way limit access to voting in the interest of “election security.” For most, that means doing away with universal vote-by-mail, ending ballot harvesting and implementing voter identification requirements.

Former Assemblyman Jim Marchant is projected to win the race with just under 38 percent of the vote. The Associated Press has called the race. His closest competitor, former state Sen. Jesse Haw, had 20 percent.

Marchant is the most extreme of the field of candidates, wanting to completely eliminate early voting, voting by mail and mandate voting with paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines. He promised to launch an investigation into the results of the 2020 election in the state if he wins election in November. (Marchant lost a bid for the 4th Congressional District that year, a loss he attributed to voter fraud.)

“(The voting system) needs to be thrown out and totally redone from the bottom up,” Marchant told the Review-Journal last month.

“We haven’t, in Nevada, elected anybody since 2006. They have been installed by the deep state cabal,” Marchant told the “Flyover Conservatives” podcast in January.

He also spoke at the QAnon convention held at the Ahern Hotel last October.

Marchant will face Democratic nominee Cisco Aguilar, who was not opposed in the primary. Republican incumbent Barbara Cegavske is term-limited.

Treasurer

Two Republicans challenged each other to face incumbent Democrat Zach Conine in the race for state treasurer.

Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore claimed victory over businessman Manny Kess, with Fiore holding 61.4 percent to Kess’ 29.5 percent.

Fiore, a Trump-supporting firebrand, began the 2022 election cycle running for governor but later switched to run for treasurer instead. Both candidates touted their business acumen, but provided few specific policy goals. Fiore told the Review-Journal she wants to audit “every account” under the treasurer’s control, which includes the state’s college savings and numerous investments.

The treasurer race has been dominated by Fiore’s many scandals. She supported the Bundy standoff in Oregon in 2016 which led to 26 people charged with felony conspiracy and one person killed. While on the Las Vegas City Council, she was accused of getting into a fight with a fellow councilwoman and breaking her finger. Additionally, she made racist comments about affirmative action in 2020 which resulted in her resigning her post as mayor pro tem. She is also under investigation by the FBI for possible campaign finance violations and had her home raided by the agency last year.

Conine released a statement Tuesday night addressing his likely opponent.

“Being Treasurer is a serious job, and Nevadans deserve a qualified and experienced individual to ensure our state remains on solid financial ground,” he said. “Michele Fiore isn’t that individual and I’m looking forward to talking to Nevadans about the vast difference between our qualifications.”

Attorney general

Incumbent Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, will face off against right-wing defense attorney Sigal Chattah to defend his seat as the state’s top prosecutor.

Chattah defeated more moderate business lawyer Tisha Black for the Republican nomination, according to the Associated Press, with Chattah garnering 51 percent of the vote. Black holds 39.7 percent.

The attorney general campaign has been marked by repeated attacks from Chattah on Black’s character. Chattah, a combative lawyer most notable for lawsuits against the state regarding pandemic restrictions, refers to Black as a “Democrat plant,” citing Black’s donations to statewide Democrats in the past.

Black has criticized Chattah for her representation of criminal defendants, and has called Ford “soft on crime” and vowed to support measures to strengthen U.S.-Mexico border security.

In February, a former ally of Chattah leaked texts where Chattah said Ford should be “hanging from an (expletive) crane” for what she saw as his poor job performance. She said the comment was tongue-in-cheek and not racist — Ford is Black — but came from her Israeli background.

Lieutenant governor

Both Democrats and Republicans face contested races for the state’s No. 2 executive.

On the Democratic side, incumbent Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead leads Henderson Mayor Debra March, with 56 percent of the vote. March had 24.8 percent.

Gov. Steve Sisolak tapped Burkhead in December to replace Kate Marshall, who left Nevada to join the Biden administration. Burkhead was a teacher and principal in Clark County schools for 25 years before retiring in 2020.

Burkhead, a relative political novice despite being the incumbent, is on track to defeat the veteran March.

Republican Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony leads his primary, holding 30.3 percent of the vote so far. Anthony lost out on a Clark County Commission seat by only 10 votes in 2020.

He leads retired Air Force Lt. Tony Grady, who has 24.8 percent of the vote, and political newcomer and investor John Miller with 16.3 percent. In a close fourth is former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, who has 12.6 percent of the vote.

Controller

With current state controller Catherine Byrne, a Democrat, deciding not to seek reelection, longtime state Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel will take up the Democratic nomination, winning 65.7 percent of the vote in her primary. Spiegel will face her Republican state Assembly colleague Andy Matthews in the general election to become the state’s chief fiscal officer and auditor. Matthews did not face a Republican primary.

Contact Nick Robertson at NRobertson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @NickRobertsonSU on Twitter.