OPINION
Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District is getting more attention than usual, and that is healthy. An open seat should be competitive. Candidates should have to earn votes rather than inherit them.
But a Nevada Current commentary published September 8 frames Republican nominee David Flippo as a candidate who can be “easily characterized as a carpetbagger,” while suggesting the combination of that label and dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump could give Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson a genuine opening.
There is a fair issue buried inside that argument. Flippo moved into the 2nd District during this election cycle after previously running in Southern Nevada. Voters are entitled to ask him about his connection to Northern Nevada, his understanding of its rural counties and why he should represent a district he has not lived in for decades.
That is scrutiny. “Carpetbagger” is a conclusion.
The voters already knew he was new to the district
Flippo’s move was hardly hidden during the Republican primary. It was one of the central arguments against him.
Former state Sen. James Settelmeyer entered that contest with perhaps the strongest possible Northern Nevada résumé: a fourth-generation Nevada rancher, longtime state legislator, former Senate Republican leader and the endorsement of retiring Congressman Mark Amodei. Gov. Joe Lombardo also backed Settelmeyer.
Flippo, meanwhile, had switched from the 4th Congressional District race after Amodei announced his retirement. His opponents repeatedly emphasized that fact. The Associated Press reported during the primary that Settelmeyer’s campaign argued Flippo lacked the district knowledge Settelmeyer had accumulated over years of public service.
Republican primary voters heard the argument. They chose Flippo anyway.
President Trump’s endorsement clearly mattered. But an endorsement does not cast a ballot. Republican voters made the choice, and after the primary Lombardo endorsed Flippo as the party’s nominee, saying he believed Flippo would be a strong partner on Nevada priorities.
None of that makes residency irrelevant. It does make it difficult to portray the issue as some newly discovered vulnerability that voters were never given the chance to consider.
Benitez-Thompson has a record too
The danger of turning CD2 into a personality story is that it lets the race escape the policy record.
Benitez-Thompson is not a political newcomer. She served more than a decade in the Nevada Assembly, rose to majority leader and later served as chief of staff to Attorney General Aaron Ford. That experience is a legitimate strength for her campaign — and it also creates a long public record voters can examine.
For example, Benitez-Thompson has recently criticized what she describes as overly generous tax treatment for data centers. Yet she voted for Senate Bill 170 in 2015, the legislation that established Nevada’s partial sales- and property-tax abatement program for qualifying data centers.
That does not automatically make her current concerns invalid. Industries change. Conditions change. Legislators can change their minds. But if a candidate’s recent move into a district is relevant to judging his credibility, a former legislator’s votes are relevant to judging hers.
The same standard should apply to both.
CD2 should be competitive on substance
Northern Nevada has real questions for the next member of Congress: federal land policy, water, mining, energy, wildfire management, veterans’ services, housing costs and the economic future of rural communities.
Flippo should have to demonstrate that he understands those issues. Benitez-Thompson should have to explain how her legislative record and current platform would address them.
And both candidates should debate.
Benitez-Thompson has publicly said she is willing to debate Flippo, and Nevada Newsmakers has said it has invited him to appear. Flippo would be better served by accepting serious forums and making his case directly to Northern Nevada voters. A candidate asking people to overlook a short history in the district has an even greater obligation to show command of the district’s concerns.
That is a much stronger answer to the residency criticism than complaining about the criticism.
But voters also deserve more from political coverage than a ready-made label.
Nevada’s 2nd District may indeed be more competitive in 2026 than it has been in years. The seat is open. The national environment is volatile. Washoe County remains politically competitive. Democrats have nominated an experienced former legislative leader, while Republicans nominated a candidate whose path to the district was unconventional.
Good. Make them compete.
Ask Flippo why Northern Nevada should trust him. Ask Benitez-Thompson to defend the votes she cast when she had power in Carson City. Ask both what they will actually do in Congress.
If CD2 is going to become a real race, Northern Nevada voters deserve a real argument.
Sources: Nevada Current, September 8, 2026; Associated Press coverage of Nevada’s June 2026 Republican primary; Gov. Joe Lombardo’s July 28 endorsement statement; Nevada Legislature records for SB170 (2015); Nevada Newsmakers reporting summarized by The Fallon Post.