LAS VEGAS — Democrats have a lock on Nevada’s congressional delegation, occupying three of four House seats and both Senate seats. But the Silver State’s lone Republican in Congress is in this year’s re-election catbird seat — unless an independent manages to play spoiler.
An Emerson College poll of the state’s 2nd Congressional District — covering the mineral-rich northern swath from Tahoe and Reno near California to casino-packed West Wendover near the Utah border — has incumbent Rep. Mark Amodei ahead by 31 points. The Hill, which commissioned the poll, rates the Republican’s reelection prospects at greater than 99%.
Game over, it would appear. But Greg Kidd, a tech entrepreneur and banker who moved to northern Nevada four-and-a-half years ago, hopes to rewrite that verdict.
He’s running as an independent candidate — so-called “nonpartisan” voters now comprise the state’s largest bloc according to official statistics — and says he’s willing to work with both sides in Congress to get things done.
At the same time, Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, has endorsed Kidd, raising suspicions his “independent” status might not be carved in stone.
The Associated Press reported this month that in some districts, third-party candidates are being recruited to siphon votes from Republicans, though Kidd wasn’t mentioned as one of them.
Kidd, who is self-funding his campaign, said he wants to go to Congress and ease the burden on “my companies and my people,” who get “a hard time” from regulators.
“The only people to give the regulators a hard time is Congress, and there has been a lot of heat, a lot of discussion about what guidance Congress should be giving to the regulators, both from the Republicans and the Democrats.”
He told The Post industries such as cannabis and cryptocurrencies should have easier access to the banking system, something legal pot dispensaries struggle with. The state’s banks “know how to manage money laundering and fraud in the gambling industry” and could apply those skills to other fields.
Kidd also believes Nevada could be a “hub for innovation” in the mining of lithium, a rare metal central to electric-vehicle battery production and other green-energy projects.
“Our district has arguably the world’s largest lithium reserve,” he said. Kidd supports the creation of a “Lithium Loop” in the district that would handle processing, manufacturing and recycling of lithium batteries and wants to create a “permanent fund” similar to the oil-profit-distributing one in Alaska that returns money to the district’s residents.
But Amodei, who’s held the seat since winning a 2011 special election, won’t be an easy opponent to defeat, a local expert says.
“The 2nd Congressional District was crafted in the early 1980s to be a Republican district, and it has never elected a Democrat,” said Fred Lokken, chair of the political-science department at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno. He told The Post the 2021 reapportionment added even more registered Republicans to the district.
Asked about Kidd’s thumping for lithium, Amodei told The Post his experience with the Bureau of Land Management and his understanding of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs the environmental aspects of mining, are more valuable to residents than boosterism.
“If you want somebody to represent this district, which is a very potentially lithium-rich district, it pays to know federal-lands law,” said Amodei, a former Nevada Mining Association president.
“It pays to have someone who have worked on successfully multiple public-lands bills. It pays to know those BLM guys I was talking to you about, you have to go through the NEPA process in each one of those districts.”
The incumbent also scoffed at Kidd’s claim of being a nonpartisan.
“He changed his registration three days before he signed up” to run, Amodei said, adding: “There’s no rule against that.”
But Kidd’s federal-election contributions include a “maxed out” contribution to Rosen’s campaign and “half a dozen of [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s candidates.”
Amodei said Kidd has “campaigned on Democratic National Committee talking points” such as abortion rights, which were guaranteed in Nevada decades ago by a voter initiative.
As to Kidd’s claims of being an independent?
“I’m not fooled for a minute,” Amodei said.
