Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) only drew two Democratic primary challengers in her bid for re-election, but one of them, Mike Schaefer, has the distinction of currently holding elected office.

In California.

Schaefer has served on the California Board of Equalization since 2019, representing a Southern California district on the state’s tax administration agency from his home in San Diego.

But his California residency isn’t stopping the 84-year-old perennial candidate from challenging Rosen on a platform that includes wanting to bring Disney investment to Las Vegas, amend the way tips for gaming employees are taxed and try to attract a World’s Fair to Las Vegas.

Can a candidate run for office in a state that is not their primary residence? A California appeals court ruled in 2000 that federal candidates do not have to be a resident of the district in which they’re seeking office until elected, based on a case brought by Schaefer himself when he was a Nevada resident seeking to run in California.

In an interview, Schaefer said he moved back to California from Nevada in 2016, but that he maintains two condos in Las Vegas and reads the Las Vegas Review-Journal every morning. On the off chance that he wins, he said he would resign his California office and change his residence.

“I feel I'm a good candidate, whether I live on the moon or in Las Vegas,” Schaefer said in an interview. “What's most important is I’ll live in Washington, D.C. and be stirring things up during the six years.”

In 2018, Rosen won 77 percent of Democrats in the Senate primary as a one-term House member. She’s going into the 2024 race with over $10 million in the bank, an incumbency advantage and the endorsement of major organizations in Democratic politics. Schaefer, by comparison, has not reported any funds raised and won 2.5 percent of the vote in the last Nevada primary he ran in, for the Fourth Congressional District in 2016.

Schaefer served on the San Diego City Council in the 1960s and then ran for nearly three dozen offices in multiple states before being elected in California again in 2018. 

The octogenarian has been legally sanctioned for being a slumlord and was convicted of misdemeanor spousal abuse, but he surprisingly advanced through a primary for the Board of Equalization and found himself in a general election against a Republican who told a female lobbyist he should “bitch slap” her at the height of the #MeToo movement, Schaefer won the race, and won re-election in 2022 with the endorsement of the state Democratic Party.

This Senate run isn’t Schaefer’s first time running in Nevada. He unsuccessfully ran to be secretary of state in 1974, as a Republican, and for controller in 2014 as a Democrat; but was removed from the ballot in that race after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled he did not meet residency requirements for state office. In Nevada alone, he’s also run unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives, Clark County public administrator and state Senate.

In a campaign website with appeals to voters in both his California Board of Equalization district and Nevada Democrats, Schaefer presents himself as better-educated, more successful in business and more likely to be respected in Washington because of his age. The soon-to-be 86-year-old notes that “all our leaders are seniors in Washington”, which ostensibly would give him an advantage over the 66-year-old Rosen. (Rosen, for what it’s worth, is of median age in the Senate.)

Schaefer also refers to Rosen on his website as a “boring” senator who is the “least prominent” member of the upper chamber. He said with the exception of the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Nevada has had low-profile senators — a trend he wants to buck.

Having lost scores of races, Schaefer isn’t naive about his longshot electoral prospects. In fact, he had a bold prediction for the race: Rosen will beat Republican frontrunner Sam Brown. He’s so sure that he believes the GOP’s best chance of winning the seat would be to boost a weaker Democratic candidate — like himself.

“I'm the darling of the Republican Party, if they're only smart enough to realize it,” he said. “Their candidate Sam doesn't have a chance unless they get somebody who's vulnerable, like me!” 

After finally achieving elected office after decades of trying, why does Schaefer want to run again?

He said it also owes to his age.

“I'm not here forever,” Schaefer said. “I'm just trying to stir up enough pots and rattle enough cages, so that I won't leave this earth feeling there's some stone I left unturned.”