Nevada Democrats hope to make history by flipping CD2 seat

The race for CD2 is wide-open

Congressman Mark Amodei's retirement leaves an open seat for northern Nevada's congressional seat in Washington D.C.

Since the seat's inception in 1983, only four people have held the reigns, and all have been republicans.

Amodei's held the seat since 2011. He dominated in general elections throughout that stretch, but with policies from the Trump Administration, many democrats feel this is the best chance to turn the district blue.

When the race started, 27 total candidates announced they were going to run.

It's now down to 25 according to who is listed on the Nevada Secretary of State's website, but two more democratic candidates, Josh Hebert and Samuel White verbally withdrew their names after throwing their support towards Morgan Wadsworth.

Since they didn't withdraw before the proper deadline, both of their names will still appear on the ballot.

The decision comes after multiple democrats running for Congressional District 2, calling themselves, "The People's Democrats" went on a press tour throughout northern Nevada.

So, it now leaves nine real candidates to pull off history for the democrats.

The two most notable are , wealthy entrepreneur who ran against Amodei in the 2024 election, and long time state lawmaker Teresa Benitez-Thompson.

Familiar faces

In 2024, Greg Kidd was the biggest challenger for Mark Amodei that year. The republican congressman still won by about 19 points, but Amodei's 55 percent vote was the lowest he had ever received in a general election throughout his 15 year run in Congress.

Kidd had already announced his campaign for CD2 in the 2026 election before Amodei decided he wasn't running for reelection.

"I'm the same candidate back in 2024," Kidd said in a sit-down interview with 2 News Nevada. "Thanks for folks that voted for me then."

Kidd was born in Connecticut, in the last election cycle we did extensive coverage on his background.

Kidd ran his 2024 campaign as a nonpartisan. Now, he is running under the Democratic umbrella. 

"The problem with running nonpartisan last time, people couldn't quite figure it out and a bunch of people ended up thinking they were voting for an independent, but they voted for the Independent Party," he said. "You know, Mark got knocked down, but to actually win, I think we're going to need to basically run under a label that people are used to seeing."

The entrepreneur believes his past experience in Washington D.C. will help if he's elected.

"I've had that track record, and I will lean in on that experience again," Kidd said. "I'm ex-Federal Reserve. I come from the Death Star. You know, Washington, D.C., but we know how at the FED to put politics aside and get things done for this country."

Kidd has lived in the state for a little more than five years.

Teresa Benitez-Thompson, commonly also referred as TBT, was born in Ventura, California, but has lived Silver State since she was four years old.

"I've been living and working in the community here for decades," she said. "I'm a licensed social worker by profession."

She also worked with children in foster care, and in health for both outpatient and in-hospital work.

TBT decided to run after Amodei's retirement announcement. She feels her more than a decade experience as a state lawmaker will equip her for lawmaking at the federal level.

"I served for 12 years in the Nevada State Legislature, and I'm very proud of my voting record there," Benitez-Thompson said. "I got to do good things for Nevada and, like, raise the minimum wage. Expand access to health care, bring down cost of prescriptions."

Before her candidacy, TBT served as Chief of Staff in the Nevada Attorney General's Office.

Fighting against Trump policies

It's not surprising, but both of the candidates will want to challenge President Donald Trump and the Republican Party if elected to Congress.

"There's two more years of this presidential administration that if someone, the next Congress person is going to have to serve in," TBT said. "So, what's happening in those next two years? Well, we're likely not going to see peace in the Middle East."

"Have Congress take accountability again," Kidd said. "It's really lost that role. There's only one functioning party right now because the Republican Party has really become a party of one person, and they haven't really been doing their job."

Both said affordability issues have only gotten worse over the past two years in northern Nevada.

"It's obviously been really tough here, especially on the affordability issue and access," Kidd said. "So, health care costs are up. Obviously, everybody's seen what's happening at the gas pump. And so, these are pocketbook issues that were big in 2024. They're overwhelming in 2026."

"Are the sky high cost of gas and diesel really worth it when we don't understand the objectives of why we're there," TBT said about the high gas prices due to the war in Iran. "And we have no clear exit plan, is that really what makes sense for us? Does that really justify the cost going through the roof of diesel, when so much of agricultural, rural Nevada uses diesel to run their farm equipment?"

TBT wants to advocate the importance of Medicaid and SNAP programs for Nevada families. She says her main emphasis will be surrounding money.

"So, number one, advocate for the penny to go to work for us, advocate for our dollars to come back to us, advocate for better lives for Nevadans," she said.

Kidd says his ability to work across party lines will hopefully help produce some solutions.

"That will sort out issues like health care, like cost of the gas pump. Immigration has been an issue as well. What we thought was going to be about knocking back criminals clearly got way beyond that."

Benitez-Thompson wants to work to bring federal dollars back to local communities.

"Our local governments and our school district budgets are very thin," she said. "So, when federal dollars get taken away from us, it means that it means that at the local level, people struggle."

Other than these two, the other candidates for CD2 in the Democratic Primary Election include Kathy Durham, Gamaliel Enriquez, Matthew Fonken, Gerold Gorman, Mark Jolle, Johnny Kerns, and Morgan Wadsworth.

There are also 13 Republican candidates for CD2.

Last week, we spoke with veteran David Flippo, and longtime state legislator James Settelmeyer.

Early voting starts May 23 and goes until June 5. The primary election is June 9.

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