Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas) — an establishment-backed Republican challenging Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) in Congressional District 3 — announced Thursday that she will drop out of the race in order to run for re-election to her Assembly seat.
The surprise move comes as a blow for House Republicans, who have long targeted Lee’s seat as one of the top pickup opportunities among Nevada’s three competitive congressional districts.
“A victory in CD3 would be hollow if the governor was left without his veto ability, and we know how critical that is for our state,” Kasama said in a phone interview Thursday.
Since announcing her candidacy in August, Kasama said D.C. leadership has been very supportive but after speaking with her family, constituents and Gov. Joe Lombardo, she realized she is needed in the Legislature.
Kasama’s exit is a boon to Lee, who has won by narrow margins in three successive elections. Kasama is a proven fundraiser from her time in the Legislature with the backing of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Lombardo.
Other announced GOP candidates in Congressional District 3 include former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien and policy analyst Drew Johnson. Kasama had raised over $300,000 through the third quarter of 2023, while Helgelien and Johnson had about $50,000 and $100,000 in cash on hand, respectively.
Kasama’s exit leaves Republican leadership in Nevada and in Washington without a handpicked candidate and positions Lee, with more than $1 million in cash on hand, as by far the best-funded candidate in the race. Had she won the primary, she would have been Lee’s first opponent with political experience.
Kasama said keeping control of Assembly District 2 is a “critical seat” in Republican efforts to avoid a Democratic supermajority heading into the next legislative session. The district has a fairly even split among major party groups, with 30 percent of voters registered as Democrats, 31 percent registered as Republicans and 32 percent registered as nonpartisan.
Democrats hold a 28-seat supermajority in the 42-member Assembly and a 13-seat majority in the 21-member Senate — just one seat shy of another supermajority. Flipping one Senate seat and maintaining a hold on existing Assembly seats would hand Democrats the power to override Lombardo’s vetoes in next year’s legislative session, just two years after the governor set the record for vetoes in 2023.
However — even after legislative Democrats redrew district maps in their favor in 2021 — Democratic margins in the Assembly remain in flux, amid an exodus of sitting lawmakers who have bowed out of re-election bids. That includes five Assembly Democrats who have announced they will leave the Legislature altogether, and another four who have announced campaigns for other seats.
So far, only one other Republican has announced a bid for Kasama’s Assembly District 2: Clark County Republican Chair Jess Law, a fixture of the county GOP and one of six so-called “fake electors” criminally charged by Nevada’s Democratic attorney general over the 2020 scheme to keep former President Donald Trump in power.
Asked whether she plans to run for Congress in the future, Kasama demurred, saying she is focused on her legislative election.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
