Teresa Benitez-Thompson flips Northern Nevada’s 2nd District in blue wave

“I know you guys have been waiting for a long time to take a crack at Nevada’s Congressional District 2, and when the seat came open, I thought, ‘I have got to run for the seat. I will regret it every single day if I don’t get out there and fight for each of you,'” Teresa Benitez-Thompson told supporters early Wednesday morning. The social worker, former pageant queen, and former Assembly majority leader became the first Democrat ever to capture Northern Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, defeating Republican small-business owner David Flippo in a district President Donald Trump won by 14 points in 2024, The Nevada Independent reported.

The victory came as a nationwide blue wave slammed into Nevada, making Benitez-Thompson the first Democrat ever to win Northern Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District. Results in the sprawling district, which stretches from Reno across rural “cow counties,” didn’t begin trickling in until nearly midnight Tuesday, but by early Wednesday the outcome was clear. She joins Democratic incumbents Dina Titus, Susie Lee, and Steven Horsford, whose Southern Nevada races were called earlier, giving the party control of all four of the state’s House seats.

Reno District Defies Trump’s 14-Point Margin

For decades, election watchers considered the seat safely Republican. When longtime Rep. Mark Amodei announced his surprise retirement in February, the race quickly became the state’s most closely watched contest. Following a bitter Republican primary in which Trump-backed Flippo defeated the candidate favored by Amodei, Democrats spotted an opportunity unlike any they had previously encountered.

Reality Check: Teresa Benitez Thompson attack ad on David Flippo

Flippo, who had originally been running for Horsford’s seat, moved to Reno specifically to switch races, making carpetbagger attacks predictable. What proved less expected were controversies over his military record and honors, plus a missing personal financial disclosure, both of which drew heavy scrutiny from local and national media. Flippo did not speak or give interviews on election night.

In the final weeks, pop-up Super PACs spent thousands of dollars directing Republican voters to Independent American Party nominee Lynn Chapman, who performed about as well as she did when she ran for the same seat in 2024.

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Record Spending Marks Most Expensive Race in District History

The contest became the most expensive in the district’s history, according to a Nevada Independent analysis conducted with the help of an AI coding tool. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee placed Benitez-Thompson on its Red to Blue list, normally reserved for swing districts, while a clean energy group called the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition invested $2 million in flipping the seat. On the Republican side, the Freedom Caucus, the Club for Growth, and other GOP-aligned groups poured millions into Flippo’s campaign.

Benitez-Thompson, known for her polish, campaigned even in the district’s reddest rural counties and ran on affordability, emphasizing her legislative experience on economic issues and fighting corruption. Though she had been known as a moderate in the Assembly, she embraced some progressive causes this year, including conditioning aid to Israel. She spent Election Day launching canvassers, encouraging University of Nevada, Reno students to vote, and helping people get ballots to drop boxes, telling The Nevada Independent, “We’ve been running all day. We’re not taking one single vote or one single minute for granted.”

Undecided and Skeptical Voters Describe Tough Choices

Even in a district Trump carried comfortably, some voters struggled with the decision. James Peters, a 38-year-old Republican with libertarian views, told The Nevada Independent he was still undecided when he arrived to vote Tuesday.

“I just don’t see a lot of good from David Flippo, basically. I don’t even know that I’ve really seen ads that make any sense or anything. So I think it’s pretty tough to vote for him. To be honest, I don’t know why I would. … It would be very hard for me to vote for a Democrat for Congress, so I’ll probably vote for the nonpartisan,” Peters said.

Other voters backed Flippo despite reservations. Jeff Hohnholz, a 48-year-old salesman and Reno Republican, said he voted for the Republican candidate but viewed it as a difficult choice.

“I picked the lesser of the two evils,” Hohnholz said.

Meanwhile, in Southern Nevada, the Democratic incumbents easily dispatched well-funded Republican challengers. National Republicans had recruited video game composer Marty O’Donnell, famed for his work on the music of Halo and Destiny, to run against Lee, with O’Donnell pouring $4 million of his own money into the bid, while state Sen. Carrie Buck became one of the GOP’s best fundraisers nationwide, outraising Titus several quarters in a row. But money couldn’t overcome voter anger over high prices and the president’s sinking approval rating. By October, the GOP’s chances of flipping any Las Vegas-based seats were clearly slipping away; a Trump-affiliated PAC that had originally planned to spend $3 million supporting O’Donnell canceled its ad reservation to triage races elsewhere. Lee was among only 13 House Democrats nationwide who won in a district that voted for Trump in 2024.

Benitez-Thompson said she wasn’t focused on the partisan battles happening elsewhere.

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“I know there’s great races happening across the country, but I’ve been so laser focused on what our unique region needs, and that’s where my focus continues to be tonight,” she said.

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