13 May 2025 7 min read Opinion

It's Time to Throwaway Mark Amodei

#ThrowawayAmodei or continue to let the State rot from good ol' boy leadership.

@emilmaltz

Mark Eugene Amodei is a career politician who has held the Representative office of Nevada's 2nd Congressional District since 2011. He is 66 years old, received his B.A. from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1980 and then went on to receive his J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, in 1983. Amodei served in the U.S. Army from 1984-1987. A "good ol boy" is what Nevadans will refer to him, but make no mistake, there is nothing good about this man or his politics. For over a decade, he has continued to sell out Nevada for unreciprocated party loyalty and lobbyists whenever he gets.

I can write all day until my fingers lock up from arthritis about the things he has done to screw over his constituents, and America at large, but let's look at some of the highlights throughout his tenure:

** Bonus: He also got a high-schooler suspended for rightfully telling Mark Amodei to get off his fucking ass and do his job.

This is Amodei. A good ol' boy Republican who grew up privileged and wants to keep Nevada a place where white Christian families can own businesses and make a lot of money. Anyone else - latinos, blacks, asians, indigenous, kids, seniors, etc. are all disposable pawns in his grift of the State of Nevada, the House of Representatives, and ultimately the American people as he currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee and three of its subcommittees (Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Interior/Environment and Related Agencies). He is also the Chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee. And because he wears the Republican regalia, he is the defacto choice for most of his constituents (who he repeatedly lies to and takes advantage of). They will blindly vote for him because he isn't Democrat and they couldn't give a damn what happens outside their little sundown towns (Fallon, Elko, Storey County, Dayton, Silver Springs, Yerington, Fernley, etc.) To these voters, Mark Amodei is the good ol' boy fighting for real (white) Americans like Trump. He grew up in Nevada, he served in the Army, he was a lawyer (NV Bar 078), and he isn't afraid to use racist tropes to relate to his base.

Many have tried to defeat him from the Democratic and Independent opposition. But what each of them faced were two major problems:

The 2nd District of Nevada contains mostly rural counties with the exception of Washoe County, which usually swings left but can be a purple county along some issues (business incentives, jobs, immigration, etc). The rural counties consist of high populations of Republican down-ballot voters who don't even read the names of the person running, if it's Republican, we vote for it mentality.
Progressives and younger voters only turn out in Washoe County. This is not to put the blame on these groups elsewhere in District 2. Democrats in the state party, like the DNC, have not done enough to help people get to the polls.
BONUS: Nevada is ranked 49th in the state for education and many high school government courses in rural counties are taught with a conservative slant.

Data obtained from https://ballotpedia.org/Mark_Amodei

2024 - Not Even Money Can Turn Voters

2024 was one of the most competitive elections on the surface between Amodei and unaffiliated independent, tech investor Greg Kidd, who outspent Amodei by $8 million. Arguably the worst year for Amodei as he was only able to secure 55% of the vote but still a win considering how much Kidd spent on ads and local media interviews. When it came to Independents and Democrats, they still couldn't be inclined to vote for Kidd who only secured 36% of the vote (the best so far being Clint Koble in 2018 with 41.8% of the vote).

It is obvious that campaign spending will not sway voters. Clint Koble came close with overwhelming support from state Democrats, yet in 2024 they couldn't even put forth a viable candidate. While Kidd is still trying to sway voters with his unaffiliated independent stance, no one is even attempting to win over the MAGA base that blindly votes for Mark Amodei, or even trying to get resources to these rural communities to get more people out to vote. Between the Democrats' ineffectiveness in leading and most voting places requiring people to stand out in the desert elements for hours on a work day, it is no wonder that Amodei is able to easily grift conservatives who will blindly follow any elephant they see.

In 2026, Nevada Democratic Party, Independents, and all other progressives need to band together for one common goal: turn Mark Amodei's base against him and expose his harmful ineptitude to all rural voters. Washoe County will easily buy into the idea of #ThrowawayAmodei, but the real fight is in rural communities. Blue-collar workers, families, seniors all voting conservative because they don't fully understand how much of a blight Amodei is on the State of Nevada. When he isn't selling other constituents land, or sucking up to the Trump administration, he does nothing but collect a paycheck from the American tax payers.

Beyond getting a candidate like Kidd or another Democrat elected, every voter in Nevada's 2nd District needs the truth about Amodei and the closer we reach that goal, the higher chance we have of giving anybody but Amodei a shot at leading for Nevada and country. From there we can focus on getting people to the polls, but history has shown that strategy only works when there is a clear objective to rally behind.

Already we have seen numerous weekend protests outside his office and when asked why he won't hold a town hall,

“Town hall is now a code word for, ‘Let's go bully the shit out of somebody in public,’” Amodei said.

KUNR did a great job actually getting him to sit down for a full interview where he distilled his sentiment towards the hundreds of protestors who have stood outside his office.

Amodei: Let me bring you up to date on town halls. The nuts and bolts of having a town hall have changed a heck of a lot from the old days where it was like, “Let's get people together and see what's on your mind. What are the veterans issues? What are the education issues?” So no disrespect to anybody, but when it sounds like, “We would like you to do an apology tour, because we hate the present administration, we hate the guy who does those electric cars, we hate the fact that you're registered as a whatever,” it's like, I got that. And by the way, I'm not going to apologize for getting elected by almost 20 points in the last election, or ones before that. So, what I've told people outside of my office that were getting ready to picket, I go, “What's your issue?” “It's education.” “Well, wait a minute, my education guy’s in the office right now, let me call him!” [I] called him in front of a group of teachers, and said, “Hey, there's some folks out here want to talk about education issues. Can you take them into the conference room and see what their issues are?” “Yeah.” So I said, “Go on in. He's expecting you.”

This man does not deserve to be in office and once people understand the type of do-nothing, mouth-breathing leader he is, they will gladly vote him out in the next election. We shouldn't be worried about the replacement until we can throwaway Amodei and, hopefully, bullying him into never wanting to run for office ever again.

These good ol' boys think they are infallible and morally just.

Both sentiments are false and it is up to the people of Nevada's 2nd District to finally #ThrowawayAmodei. Let's save the state from continued suffering under good ol' boy leadership.

Articles Dump:

2024 - Not Even Money Can Turn Voters

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