In 2010, Nye County was roiled by a severe political scandal and a shocking instance of political corruption. Early in the year, the County Treasurer, Gary Budahl (D), approached the Sheriff's Office for assistance in auditing the Bad Check Program, which held funds collected from bad checks. Under state law, the district attorney (who oversees the fund) is only allowed to use funds to help victims of crime or with the costs of a program. After further investigation, Nye County's then-DA Robert Beckett (R) was arrested on charges of embezzlement, as Beckett had used funds from the program to help family members and individuals with financial issues. 

As Nye County dealt with the ramifications of arresting a sitting DA, such as how to charge Beckett when the DA is the one who files charges (and what to do when Beckett filed charges against officers investigating him), voters now had to choose a new DA. Despite his arrest, Beckett actually ran for re-election, but finished last in the Republican primary. In said primary, former Deputy Prosecutor Ron Kent narrowly defeated Nancy Lord, the 1992 Libertarian VP nominee, while Brian Kunzi, head of the insurance fraud office for the attorney general, won the Democratic nomination.

On election day, despite the national red wave taking out many local Democrats, including County Treasurer Budhal (D), Kunzi narrowly defeated Kent to become Nye County's next DA. Kent dominated in Northern Nye County, but it wasn't enough to overcome Kunzi's victory in Pahrump. Kunzi served one term before being defeated in 2014, but he was elected to a second term in 2022 as a Republican. Additionally, Kunzi's victory started an anti-incumbent trend in Nye County, as Kunzi and every following DA have lost re-election after one term (although Kunzi may break that trend later this year). 

Further Analysis Coming Soon!

While 2018 was far from the worst year for Republicans nationally, it did mark a low-point for Nevada Republicans. As a blue wave swept across the state, Democrats flipped the US Senate seat, held their three congressional districts, and won their largest majorities in decades in both chambers of the State Legislature. Democrats had the same success in statewide offices, recovering from their abysmal performance in 2014 and flipping five constitutional offices. However, Democrats were narrowly denied a clean sweep of all six statewide races (seven, counting the Senate seat), as in the race for Secretary of State, Republican incumbent Barbara Cegavske narrowly won re-election over state Assemblyman Nelson Araujo (D) by a little over 6,300 votes, or 0.66%. Cegavske, who hails from Las Vegas like her opponent, had the best performance of any Republican in Clark County (home to Vegas), holding Araujo to an 8 point victory compared to the double-digit victories most other Democrats scored there. This, combined with lower recognition/turnout and the lack of a far-right spoiler candidate from the Independent American party, allowed Cegavske to do what her fellow Republicans could not and narrowly hold on to her office. In the years following the election, Cegavske was censured by the state GOP for refusing to overturn the 2020 election results in Nevada in favor of Donald Trump before retiring in 2022 due to term limits. In 2022, Democrats flipped the office even as Republicans flipped the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and State Controller, and with 2026 shaping up to be a blue year, Democrats start out as narrow favorites to hold the Secretary of State's office.

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, as the residents of Nevada's 36th Assembly District could attest in 2018.

Unfortunately, being a full-time college student precludes me from getting analyses out in a timely manner, but since this story is (in my opinion) one of the more interesting to come out of rural Nevada politics, here are two articles on it:

NBC 

New Yorker

Further Analysis Coming Soon!

In 2024, Las Vegas voters elected a new mayor, since incumbent Carolyn Goodman (I) was term-limited. The primary saw fourteen candidates competing for Vegas' top job, with former Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D) and City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman (R) advancing to the general election (although since the election is officially non-partisan, their party affiliation was not on the ballot). As such, this marked the first time in almost 30 years that Las Vegas' mayoral election would be won by someone outside the Goodman family. On election day, Berkley defeated Seaman and was elected Vegas's 23rd Mayor, winning by 6.4%. However, Berkley's margin of victory was the narrowest of Vegas' mayoral elections in the 21st century. Seaman did best in the northern and western portions of the city, but it wasn't enough to overcome Berkley's large margins in the east.

Notably, O'Donnell was the composer for the Halo games.

Further Analysis Coming Soon!