It’s a rematch in the race for Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.
Two years after Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) defeated Mark Robertson, a retired Army colonel, by more than 5 percentage points, the two are facing off again after Robertson handily won his June primary.
But the context of the race is different this time around. National Republicans have essentially ignored the race, spending no money on ads backing Robertson, a far cry from two years ago when GOP groups spent about $9 million on ads, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Titus has also significantly outraised Robertson and, as of the end of June, had a more than $1 million advantage in cash on hand.
It’s part of an overall theme where national GOP groups largely have steered clear of Southern Nevada’s House races after their spending two years ago amounted to no seat pickups. Notably, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stumped in Las Vegas this week for John Lee and Drew Johnson — the GOP candidates for Congressional Districts 3 and 4 — but not for Robertson, who is running in the bluest district in the state.
It poses an interesting dynamic in the district, which became less Democratic after redistricting three years ago. After previously covering central Las Vegas, the district now stretches from the southeastern part of the city to also include Henderson and Boulder City. The Cook Political Report, an election forecaster, ranks the district as “Likely Democrat.”
Robertson said in an interview that he is more confident in his chances this year, in part because of Republicans being more encouraging of voting early and by mail — legal methods that the GOP largely eschewed two years ago based on the unfounded claims that they lead to widespread fraud.
“The message is just ‘vote, vote, vote,’” Robertson said. “I think those things will make a difference.”
Meanwhile, Titus is quick to push back the notion that the lack of GOP funding will decide the race.
“Elections in Nevada are always very close, so we’ll work till the last day,” Titus said. “We don’t take anything for granted.”
To be victorious in the 1st Congressional District, the candidate will likely need to appeal to nonpartisans, who represent about 35 percent of the district’s active registered voters, a 4 percentage point increase from two years ago. Democrats and Republicans make up about 32 and 25 percent of registered voters, respectively.
Asked how he will appeal to nonpartisan voters, Robertson said he brings a new political perspective because he has never held elected office.
“We can’t count on the people who created these problems to be the ones to fix it,” Robertson said. “We need somebody who’s willing to work across the aisle to find solutions.”
Meanwhile, Titus said anyone with doubts about her willingness to work across the aisle should look at her record. In 2023, Titus was ranked as the 94th most bipartisan member of the House (out of 435), according to an analysis by Lugar Center at Georgetown University.
“I say what I mean and I do what I say,” Titus said. “Those are the kind of things people want to hear — that you’re there for them. They’re not all that interested in whether you’re a Democrat or Republican.”
Similar to other Republican campaigns this cycle, Robertson is learning into immigration and the economy — issues that voters rank as among the most important — arguing that re-electing Titus would only continue the past few years of increasing inflation and illegal border crossings, though both of those have eased significantly in recent months.
Titus’ campaign strategy can best be encapsulated in an ad she released Thursday. The 30-second spot ties Roberston to Project 2025 — a conservative think tank’s policy blueprint for the next Republican administration that has become a weapon in Democrats’ arsenal this year — and accusing him of wanting to ban abortion with no exceptions.
However, Robertson has clarified, dating back to 2022, that he supports abortion exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Additionally, he said in 2022 that he was thankful for the Texas Heartbeat Act, which banned most abortions at the six-week mark, but he now says he would not support any federal action that goes against the will of his constituents.
Robertson has also pushed back on links to Project 2025, telling Politico that he had never used the words “Project 25.”
Candidate backgrounds
Titus entered the Nevada political world more than 30 years ago. She won her first race for state Senate in 1988 and served there for 20 years, including 15 as Democratic minority leader. She also ran for Nevada governor in 2006 but lost the general election by 4 percentage points.
She entered Congress in 2009 but only lasted one term representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District, losing her first re-election bid by less than 1 percentage point to Republican Joe Heck. Two years later, she ran for the 1st Congressional District, and has been in office ever since.
She has served on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for her entire congressional career and has been on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for the past four terms.
Titus was also a UNLV government professor for 34 years until 2011, and she is known for her expertise in nuclear power and weaponry.
“I’ve been around a long time,” Titus said. “My integrity has never been challenged.”
Robertson, meanwhile, has never held elected office.
As a 17-year-old, he joined the Army, where he served for 30 years and retired as a colonel. He said he served in combat zones in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has also owned a financial planning business in Henderson and a real estate investment company and has worked as an adjunct finance professor at UNLV and for a slew of other financial businesses, according to investment disclosure forms.
Robertson’s personal financial disclosure lists the value of his assets at between $1.7 million and $6.5 million. The wide range is because of how the personal financial disclosure system works, as candidates report their assets in broad categories, such as one ranging from $1 million to $5 million.
He has owned properties in Nevada for decades and previously owned a property in Florida, property records show. He has one residence in Henderson and has at least two properties tied to a family trust.
Titus, meanwhile, has assets worth between $1.7 million and $7.1 million, according to her personal financial disclosure.
On the policies
Social Security and Medicare
Robertson said he wants to work across the aisle on legislation to prevent Social Security and Medicare from going bankrupt, which would result in program cuts as soon as 2035 for Social Security and 2036 for Medicare.
He wants to create a bipartisan commission where politicians from both parties convene with experts to formulate ways of keeping the programs alive.
“My opponent, Dina, has said ‘I will not touch your Social Security,’” Robertson said. “Well, that’s a failed strategy. These programs are headed to insolvency. If you do nothing, which is her plan, then they will go bankrupt.”
In response, Titus appeared skeptical of expectations of the programs’ insolvency, which are made by boards of trustees.. The Medicare insolvency deadline was pushed from 2031 to 2036 this year.
“[Republicans] are always talking about the solvency issue because they’re wanting to move us down the path towards privatization,” Titus said. “They’re calling for a big study. Another name for a study is look for ways to cut.”
Instead, Titus said she wants to see program expansion, such as having Medicare cover the cost of glasses.
Economy
From speaking with voters, Robertson said he thinks inflation is the top issue for Nevadans.
To lower inflation (which surged at the beginning of the pandemic but has slowed dramatically), he wants to cut back on government spending, free up America’s energy production and roll back government regulations.
Asked what more can be done in the next Congress to address inflation, Titus mostly rehashed what has been done in the past four years, such as capping monthly insulin costs to $35 for Medicare recipients and legislation to fund the production of semiconductors in the U.S. She also wants to do more to go after corporations for price gouging, a priority for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Whoever wins the race will also vote next year on whether to extend tax cuts passed by Congress and signed by former President Donald Trump that slashed the minimum corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, though it also increased the standard tax deduction that helps middle-class Americans. Titus accused Trump of seeking even greater tax cuts for corporations and crippling the nation’s deficit (estimates show extending the cuts could increase the national debt by more than $4 trillion).
Robertson did not directly answer whether he would support extending the tax cuts, instead saying he supports tax cuts for middle-class businesses.
One point of agreement among Harris and Trump has been ending taxes on tipped wages, a policy that Trump first endorsed at a rally in Las Vegas in June. Harris followed suit two months later.
As she has in recent months, Titus said that any legislation to end taxes on tips should be paired with raising the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 —- to $15.
However, Robertson is opposed to the tip tax repeal proposal altogether.
“It seems unfair to those hardworking people that don’t get tips, that they don’t get a tax break,” he said.
Immigration
One reason Robertson is more confident in his ability to win this year is because of the situation at the southern border, which he said “certainly hasn’t gotten any better in the last two years.”
Illegal border crossings reached a record high at the end of 2023, but they have fallen dramatically this year, and July saw the fewest monthly encounters at the southern border in nearly four years. In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order making it much more difficult for migrants who illegally enter the country to seek asylum and remain in the U.S.
That policy came after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan immigration bill at the behest of Trump. It would have increased funding for the Border Patrol and stopped accepting most asylum claims if the number of migrant encounters reached a certain limit.
“If they were serious about immigration reform, they could have worked on that bill and passed it,” Titus said.
Robertson, meanwhile, said the bill would not have done enough to address illegal immigration and instead criticized Democrats for not passing H.R. 2, which passed the GOP-led House with no Democratic support last year. The bill would have required all American employers to verify that their employees are lawfully present in the country, added a $50 fee for asylum claims and added a wall to about 900 miles of the southern border, among many other reforms.
“Not even allowing it to be discussed or sent to committee is just a raw political move by [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, and I don’t think enough is said about that,” Robertson said.
Trump has also pledged to launch the nation’s largest deportation operation ever if he regains the White House. Robertson said he did not have any thoughts on the measure, while Titus was very critical.
“How are you going to round up all these people and deport them, and how much is it going to cost? Who’s going to do it?” Titus said. “Be reasonable.”
Titus and Robertson supported offering a pathway to citizenship for people brought to the U.S. illegally as minors.
Housing
Titus thinks housing is the number one issue in Southern Nevada.
As a start, she said Harris’ housing plan — which includes building 3 million homes nationwide and up to $25,000 in assistance for eligible first-time homebuyers — “would make a difference here.” Notably, Harris has not weighed in on the freeing up of federally owned land for affordable housing development in Nevada — a topic of bipartisan agreement in the Silver State.
Titus said that any release of federal land must include some designations specifically for affordable housing, and she supports tax breaks for groups that develop public housing. She also wants to take on property corporations using deceptive tactics to raise leasing costs and sneaking in undisclosed fees, and touted the Housing Vouchers Fairness Act, a bill for which she is the sole co-sponsor, which would allocate $2 billion for rental vouchers in high population areas.
Robertson said the housing crisis can be eased by lowering inflation and freeing up federal land for affordable housing development, though he said state and local governments, rather than the federal government, should take the lead on other initiatives to lower housing costs.
He also wants to see the six members of Nevada’s congressional delegation come together on a plan for freeing up the land.
Ballot questions
Nevadans will vote on three prominent ballot questions this year: enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution, requiring voter ID and implementing ranked-choice voting and open primaries.
Titus supports the abortion question, while Robertson called it “unnecessary” given that abortion through 24 weeks is already legal in Nevada (which the question would not change, though it would make it harder for that to go away).
Robertson is backing the voter ID question as a common-sense measure, but Titus is opposing it because she does not believe voter impersonation and illegal voting are widespread enough issues in Nevada.
Titus also is opposing the ranked-choice voting and open primaries question — saying it would sow confusion — and Robertson said he is still looking into the topic.
