Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) was not surprised that Republican Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian filed to run for his District 2 congressional seat. 

“He'd been chirping on Twitter and Facebook and all those things for about a month,” Amodei said in a brief interview last week. “It's okay to be ambitious, and he is certainly ambitious.” 

Amodei took issue with Tarkanian's comments in the video announcing his surprise run, in which Tarkanian claimed Amodei did not “vote for America First principles as articulated by” former President Donald Trump. 

“I'm not impressed with the truth factor so far,” said Amodei, a reliable vote for House GOP leaders.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Amodei voted with Trump’s position almost 95 percent of the time.

But Amodei is prepared to make his case. Nevada’s lone Republican in the U.S. House takes pride in the fact that he has “never been unopposed” and still retained his seat for 11 years, beginning with the special election won in 2011 to replace Dean Heller, who was tapped for the Senate to take replace former Sen. John Ensign (R-NV).  

“In this business, you're only as good as your next election,” he said.

Amodei has agreed to debate Tarkanian on April 11.

“Anybody wants to have a debate, I’ll be there. Happy to be there,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This story appears in Indy 2022, The Nevada Independent’s newsletter dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the 2022 election. Sign up for the newsletter here.