MAGA candidate's treasurer defensive over campaign gift from dead woman: 'At it again'

David Flippo’s Nevada House campaign credited a contribution to a woman who seems to have died in 2019, and his treasurer pointed the finger at the press, The Washington Sun reported on Thursday.

The campaign’s latest Federal Election Commission report lists Val Sheldon as giving $143.56 on Oct. 13. The Sun says the only woman who fits her details died in 2019, per obituaries. Federal law largely prohibits gifts from the deceased except through bequests, which it says doesn’t seem to apply.

The money came from splitting a $3,643.56 gift credited to Bret Sheldon, according to the Sun. Sheldon, whose sister-in-law was Val Sheldon, said he knows no one else by that name, didn’t know of the reattribution until the Sun called, and was never asked for the written consent FEC rules require. He said the $143.56 was a processing fee he covered on a $3,500 gift via the Republican fundraising platform WinRed.

Flippo campaign treasurer Thomas Datwyler said he is “looking into it” but said “the liberal media is at it again,” noting the campaign has received more than 5,500 individual contributions. The campaign didn’t answer questions or provide documentation of consent.

The Sun links this incident to an earlier Wall Street Journal report that the campaign credited a donation to Joyce Mack, a philanthropist who died in 2024, which a spokesman blamed on a clerical error.

Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson called Flippo an “out-of-town conman.” Retiring Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, who is backing independent Lynn Chapman, said he considers Flippo a deeply flawed candidate.

Flippo has been plagued with controversy ever since his nomination. A separate report revealed he embellished the nature of his Bronze Star in an act military experts called stolen valor; he tried to blame this on staff, but the details did not add up.