Now that she has received her divine pardon from the great and powerful President Donald Trump, Nye County Justice of the Peace Michele Fiore is officially seeking re-election. 

Yes, that’s one hell of an opening paragraph — and yet, somehow, it still hardly scratches the surface of what insanity awaits us as we examine the strange convergence of Trumpian crony politicking with the weirdness of Nevada political reality. 

Fiore has officially filed for re-election to her seat in Pahrump despite the fact that she’s still suspended by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline. The suspension followed her conviction of wire fraud in 2024, and was reinstated (with pay) following her pardon last April after additional complaints were levied against her. 

Of course, we already knew her re-election bid was inevitable. Late last year she formally petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court to revoke the commission’s suspension, claiming its continuation would pose “irreparable harm” to her re-election odds. 

Irreparable harm? Certainly, a suspension doesn’t look good — but being convicted of using donations intended for a fallen police officer’s memorial for her own personal gain isn’t a stellar look either. If voters in Nye County are willing to look past that corrupt buffoonery, it seems unlikely a pending administrative suspension will be much of a hindrance.

And there’s a nonzero chance at least some voters might actually be willing to do precisely that. 

After all, Fiore is a “firebrand” who long ago manufactured a place for herself in the decaying ruins of Nevada’s Republican Party by portraying herself as a victim of “the swamp.” Her loyalty to Trump has not only won her a pardon, but it’s also won her lasting appeal among a loud and active base within a raucous wing of the state GOP.

And that pandering has largely worked to her advantage. Over the years, she has demonstrated an uncanny ability to proceed shamelessly through one scandal after another in pursuit of continued profiteering from so-called “public service.” 

From physical altercations with fellow elected officials to claiming cancer is a fungus, there’s seemingly no embarrassment too great for her to brave in the pursuit of furthering her political ambitions — a statement that would almost seem honorable if it were not about someone a jury recently found guilty of using donations for a cop’s memorial to pay for her plastic surgery. As Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston noted shortly after her presidential pardon was announced, “She has done so many inexplicable, weird things that her gun-filled Christmas card is but a footnote.” 

Her attempt to return to the bench, therefore, isn’t unexpected — just as her pardon wasn’t shocking coming from a transactionalist White House that has shown no compunction about handing get-out-of-jail-free cards to some of the most cartoonishly corrupt, contemptible and guilty political fraudsters in recent memory. 

Former Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA), for example, was apparently so accustomed to taking bribes as a lawmaker, federal investigators even found a “bribe menu” that listed the prices for various political favors. Such behavior would seem to be the exact sort of “swampy” Washington skullduggery MAGA railed against when Trump claimed he was going to “drain the swamp,” but in the final hours of his first term he happily doled out a pardon to the disgraced former congressman. 

Former governor of Illinois and onetime Celebrity Apprentice contestant Rod Blagojevich is another example of no crime being too outlandish for Trump to pardon if personal or political favoritism is part of the equation. Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on 17 corruption charges, including trying to sell a Senate seat for $1.5 million and simultaneously trying to rescind millions of dollars in state funds for pediatric doctors because the CEO of a children’s hospital refused to donate to his campaign. He was not only awarded a pardon last year but was even considered for an ambassadorship as well. 

Put a U.S. Senate seat up for auction, openly solicit bribes from lobbyists or steal money from a police officer’s memorial fund and you too can obtain a pardon if you stroke the president’s ego with enough enthusiasm. 

Now, to be sure, Trump is not the only president to hand out political favors to obviously corrupt loyalists, friends or family. President Bill Clinton, for example, once pardoned a former hedge fund manager indicted on multiple counts of tax evasion and racketeering after the man’s ex-wife made a few large donations to the Clinton Presidential Library and the Democratic National Committee. 

What makes our local example in Nye County particularly noteworthy, however, is the sheer unencumbered sense of entitlement Fiore feels to remain an active participant in our elected government. Fiore’s shameless but relentless pursuit of electoral relevance indicates a pathological addiction to the sort of success she’s experienced pretending to be the victim of a “swamp” she’s clearly desperate to join. 

Normally, any one of Fiore’s past scandals would disqualify her in the eyes of voters — Trump’s political favors or presidential pardons notwithstanding. However, in today’s world of partisan grifters and nonstop political commotion, her frenzied refusal to express any sense of shame or remorse might actually be what keeps her lingering on the periphery of Nevada politics, regardless of whether her suspension from the bench remains in place. 

After all, in the eyes of those who have forgiven all her past transgressions, she’s a Trumpian “fighter” in the GOP — and to some folks, apparently, that’s all that matters.

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas and founder of Schaus Creative LLC, an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him on Twitter @schausmichaelor on Substack @creativediscourse.