Republican Victoria Seaman withdraws from congressional race

The move comes just days after President Donald Trump urged fellow Republican Danny Tarkanian to jump into the race.

“My priorities are to see President Trump’s America-first policies succeed. And that is why I am withdrawing from CD3,” Seaman said.

Seaman announced her candidacy in August, making her one of the first candidates to enter what became a crowded field — with 23 candidates — for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen is running for Senate this year.

In a statement announcing her withdrawal, Seaman called herself and Tarkanian the “clear front runners” in the race, and said she was worried that a competitive primary would leave the eventual winner wounded.

“I can’t imagine destroying each other in a primary so that a Republican cannot win the general election,” Seaman said. “The Tarkanian’s (sic) have been family friends for years, and attacking one another will only hurt each other’s families, and lead to a blue win in November.”

Seaman is stepping aside six days after Trump’s tweet, which upended Nevada’s Republican U.S. Senate primary and made the Southern Nevada congressional race that much more competitive.

“It would be great for the Republican Party of Nevada, and it’s (sic) unity if good guy Danny Tarkanian would run for Congress and Dean Heller, who is doing a really good job, could run for Senate unopposed!” Trump tweeted last week.

Tarkanian had spent the last several months hammering away at U.S. Sen. Dean Heller in his primary challenge of the vulnerable GOP incumbent. Hours after the President’s tweet, Tarkanian ended that bid and filed to run for Congress.

“When the president of the United States and the leader of your party asks you to do something, you mostly need to do it,” Tarkanian said last week. “But it wasn’t something I was wanting to do.”

With Seaman out, 10 other Republicans, including Tarkanian as well as including state Sen. Scott Hammond and former television reporter Michelle Mortensen, are running in the CD3 primary election this June.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.