Marty O'Donnell unfazed after Trump PAC pulls $2 million in ad spending

Indy Elections takes you behind the headlines of Nevada politics, delivering scoops and smart analysis on the races that could reshape our lives. You can change your newsletter settings here.

In today's edition: A sneak peek at what 2028ers said at IndyFest. Plus: O'Donnell confident despite Trump PAC pulling spending, exclusives on a new anti-Flippo and pro-Monroe-Moreno ad and a mail ballot notification glitch.

So much news! Let's jump right in.

This newsletter is published twice a week. We want to hear from you! Email your newsletter editor Mini Racker at [email protected]. 

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If I did it: 2028 edition?

Thursday's IndyFest was chock-full with (potential) nominees for president in 2028, but no confirmed bids.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D),Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and former congressman and President Barack Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel talked about what is driving their openness to running for president, the future of the Democratic party and more.

We'll have more details coming soon.

— Tabitha Mueller and Kate Reynolds

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More money coming for Marty?

Video game composer Marty O'Donnell (R) seemed unfazed this week when asked about the millions of ad dollars that Safety and Affordability, a super PAC tied to President Donald Trump, has pulled from his race in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District. 

"It's definitely winnable," O'Donnell said about the race after a Tuesday rally with House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and state Sen. Carrie Buck (R-Henderson), who is running to replace Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV). The event was held in Meta APEX, formerly an arena for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), with roughly 120 people in attendance. 

The Trump-aligned super PAC had originally reserved $3 million worth of ads in the district. As of this week, it has withdrawn $2 million. O'Donnell is challenging Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), who is favored to win her re-election bid in a district that is rated "likely D." 

"The PAC was one of those things, money comes and goes," continued O'Donnell. "I was told by the House speaker that there's more money coming into this race." 

O'Donnell also addressed his Discord channel, which is full of fans dubbed The Marty Army, after The Associated Press reported finding slurs, white nationalist conspiracies and minimizations of Nazi Germany in the forum. 

"I mean, everybody knows I'm a staunch supporter of Israel," O'Donnell told reporters after the rally. "It's just insane to me that I would ever be accused of not being absolutely unequivocally supporting of Israel." 

He said that his team had tried to "squash all of it," but that they had "missed a couple," and that the Discord channel had over a million posts. 

Johnson said he, as well as two out-of-state congressmen, were in Nevada because these races were crucial to maintaining a Republican House majority. 

"That's why you're seeing everybody coming through Nevada, that's why you're seeing cabinet members and the president of the United States and the Speaker of the House, because this is so important," Johnson told the crowd.

— Oona Milliken 

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What we're reading and writing

A refresher on how mail and in-person voting works in Nevada

Who's funding the candidates in Southern Nevada?

Money talks — it blabs about which seats are competitive.

Nevada's AOC? The real AOC denounces a mailer with GOP ties. 

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Indy Ad Watch: Invest today

Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC, a clean energy group that already committed $1.5 million against small-business owner David Flippo (R) in the 2nd Congressional District race, is increasing its investment to $2 million, the group told The Indy first. 

The new $500,000 investment also comes with a new TV ad. Like the group's first spot, this one attacks Flippo over his recent move to Reno and his missing (and legally required) financial disclosure. It states that former Assm. Teresa Benitez-Thompson (D-Reno) will "ban members from trading stocks," employing the anti-corruption messaging that Democrats are leaning on in the final stretch before Election Day. 

Invest in Tomorrow considers the district "a top target," due in part to the fact that solar generates about a third of Nevada's electricity. By the time the midterms are over, the investment could help make this race the most expensive in Northern Nevada history.

Here's more ad news you can only find in Indy Elections: 

• The ballot initiative to require voter ID is widely expected to pass this year, but that isn't stopping dark money from getting involved. The Coalition for Prosperous Communities, a national group that does not have to disclose its donors, is behind digital ads in support of the initiative. Meta's ad library shows it has spent more than $60,000 in ads on its platform, while AdImpact shows more than $150,000 in spending on digital ads.
  • Its Nevada-based group received more than $1.7 million from the national group in September and reported spending about the same amount in advertising and consultants.
• There's also money going into ads in support of and opposition to the ballot question to enshrine abortion rights in the Nevada Constitution.
  • Protect Our Girls, a group opposing the initiative, has spent more than $5,000 on Facebook ads, according to Meta's ad library. The group raised about $50,000 from July through September, which included $10,000 from Nevada Right to Life.
  • Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group behind the ballot initiative, brought in more than $750,000 from July through September, including $250,000 from a group tied to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and $70,000 from a left-leaning dark money group. It has spent more than $100,000 in digital ad spending, per AdImpact. 
• North Las Vegas mayor candidate Assm. Daniele Monroe-Moreno (D-North Las Vegas) released an online ad that depicts her opponent North Las Vegas Councilmember Scott Black wearing a Trump-style "Make NLV Great Again" hat and attacking his support of a former city manager who was given a lucrative no-bid consulting contract to a
  • The ad will run in tandem with another ad "Showing Up" that touts Monroe-Moreno's record in the Legislature and as a correctional officer. 

— Mini Racker, Oona Milliken and Eric Neugeboren

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Mini Series: The polls were fake

⛔ Driving a wedge, part 2 — Wedgewood Polls, a purported polling firm that popped up this summer, has admitted almost all of its surveys were fake — including one in Nevada's 2nd Congressional District. 

• The people behind Wedgewood released a statement claiming that they fabricated data to highlight how little the media scrutinizes polling. However, journalist G. Elliott Morris stated they were "trying to cover up their fraud" while his outlet investigated them. 
• Indy Elections skeptically covered Wedgewood's fabricated "poll" back in July. Real surveys by credible pollsters, all conducted later on behalf of Democrats, found the candidates within a few points of each other — two found small-business owner David Flippo (R) leading.

❓A mail ballot notification glitch? — Assembly candidate Drew Teitelbaum posted on X that he and others had received notifications that a mail ballot was on its way even though they had reportedly already voted by mail. 

• The secretary of state's office told The Indy that it happened because the ballot tracking company it works with, Ballot Scout, sent incorrect messages to 584 voters. The company said in a statement the messages "were out of date," and that "the system has been updated so out-of-date notifications like this are not sent in the future."

😡 Tension over voter intimidation incident  — A video on social media earlier this week showed a person with a megaphone at a Clark County polling place, shouting profanities and that "Democrats are lunatics." Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar spoke with Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill about the incident, but Las Vegas police's response has led to tension with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada (ACLU).

• In response to an Indy inquiry about the incident, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the woman "remained compliant" after receiving a warning.
• But Athar Haseebullah, the executive director of the ACLU of Nevada who was on site for the incident, said that isn't true.
  • "I don't think she was compliant at all," he said. "I really hope they don't think that their response was sufficient because there really wasn't a response, so it's not as if her conduct got better."

💰Bigelow's pro-Lombardo spending — We reported in Tuesday's edition that billionaire hotel mogul Robert Bigelow has been behind more than $20 million in political donations to groups with a nexus to Gov. Joe Lombardo (R). However, that didn't include the more than $6 million he has given to the Stronger Nevada PAC. Although this PAC is run by former Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchinson (R), it still appears to play a prominent role in Lombardo's political apparatus, with more than $2.5 million in historical donations to the Lombardo-affiliated Better Nevada PAC. It also gives money to other Republican candidates in Nevada. 

— Mini Racker, Tabitha Mueller, Oona Milliken and Eric Neugeboren

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Looking Ahead

• Friday, Oct. 30  — Early voting ends
• Tuesday, Nov. 3 — Election Day
• Wednesday, Nov. 4 — Freedom for the Indy Elections crew! (Editor's Note: lmao nope)

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A post that caught our eye: 

It's (the lack of) hope that kills you.