MAGA candidate has a dead woman on his donor rolls — and no good excuse

The campaign of Nevada Republican David Flippo listed a donation as coming from a woman who died in 2024, the latest in a run of problems for the candidate, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Last month the campaign accepted $7,000 from Marilynn Mack, which exceeds the limit for a single election. Instead of sending back the extra, it moved $3,500 of it to Mack’s mother, Joyce Mack, a prominent Las Vegas philanthropist whose family’s name adorns UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, according to amended Federal Election Commission filings.

Campaign spokesman Rory McShane told the Journal it was a clerical mistake. The campaign revised the filing again, splitting the money between primary debt and the general election. Marilynn Mack didn’t respond to the Journal’s questions.

The episode adds to earlier trouble over late financial disclosures and a retracted claim about a military honor.

Flippo’s campaign said he earned a Bronze Star for valor, but his 2004 medal lacked that distinction, and he blamed campaign staffers for confusing the awards. He has also never filed a personal financial disclosure, despite lending his campaign $1.8 million.

Retiring Rep. Mark Amodei, who has held the seat 15 years, has called Flippo a fraud and says he won’t back him. In an interview, Amodei said being a Republican doesn’t mean he’ll stand in front of what he called “a fraud freight train.”

Nevada's 2nd Congressional District, which includes Reno, Carson City, the Lake Tahoe area, and the northern high desert, has never elected a Democrat since the district was first established in the 1980s. But Cook Political Report now rates the race Likely Republican, down from Solid Republican, against Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson, and an independent candidate could draw away conservative votes.