Nevada GOP congressional candidate leaves tight US House race to defend her state Assembly seat

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The establishment-backed Republican candidate for Nevada’s most competitive congressional district is dropping out of the race to defend her current seat in the state Assembly, she announced Thursday.

Heidi Kasama said she would focus on ending the Democratic supermajority in the Assembly rather than aiming for a seat in Washington. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s veto power would be significantly diminished in the next legislative session if Republicans are a superminority both in the Assembly and in the Senate, where Democrats are one seat shy of the override margin.

“I could not imagine myself in Washington, DC trying to fix Congress if Governor Lombardo faced veto-proof majorities in both chambers at home in Nevada,” Kasama said in a statement. “Any such victory would be a hollow one.”

The surprise decision, first reported by The Nevada Independent, leaves conservative policy analyst Drew Johnson, who lost a race for the Clark County commission by 336 votes, and former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien as the two Republicans vying to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, who was reelected last year by 4 percentage points over Republican April Becker. Both Johnson and Helgelien had raised significantly less money than Kasama.

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