Trump-endorsed candidate puts red Nevada district in play over stolen valor

Nevada's Second Congressional District has been reliably Republican, but it now appears to be in play for the first time ever.

The monster district covers the entire northern half of Nevada, including Carson City, Reno, Sparks and the state's rural areas. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) announced he was retiring in February after 15 years in Congress. Under normal circumstances, the seat would be easy to hand over to another Republican. He now says the seat's competitive for the first time because of a number of scandals surrounding the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate.

"This seat is some kind of competitive like it has never been in the history since it was created," said Amodei when speaking to KPBS. "And you know what I attribute that to? I attribute it to the candidate and the way he's run his campaign."

That candidate is Republican David Flippo, who appears on his campaign signs in his military uniform featuring two Bronze Stars, which his campaign falsely claimed were "for valor." Now he's being accused of moving into the district from Las Vegas to run.

Flippo was set to run for Congress in the Vegas district, but after Amodei announced he would retire, Flippo moved into the district to run in a reliably red seat. With the coveted Trump endorsement, he made it through the Republican Primary.

"This is a strong conservative district," Flippo told NPR. "I was talking with the people that have endorsed me such as Turning Point and other organizations that are on the conservative side. The belief was that this being a conservative district we should get somebody that is more conservative in this seat."

Now it appears that the GOP is starting to panic, dumping in "more than $1 million in TV and digital advertising reservations, according to AdImpact data," the report cited.

Veteran political newsman Jon Ralston quipped, "They must have gotten a poll and had a five-alarm fire at headquarters and said we have to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into that district to save this guy."

Just two years ago, Trump won the district by 14 points. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added the race to its "red to blue" program, indicating that Democrats believe they could win.

Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson has lived in the district since early childhood and has represented it in the state legislature and served as Miss Nevada.

Allegations of being a carpetbagger are just the latest scandal the scandal-plagued Republican is facing.

The Washington Post first reported incidents in which Flippo's campaign made the claim, only to find out it was false. Even a video from an earlier congressional race celebrates Flippo as "a recipient of the Bronze Star that he received for Valor." He never won the medal with the "V" for valor, which represents bravery in battle. Veterans notice and feel strongly about those who make such false claims, known as "stolen valor."

Flippo has tried to blame his staff, claiming he never noticed the false information in his campaign videos, on his website and in other campaign materials. At his press conference, he said a staffer mistook the "V" for valor when it was an award his whole unit received. Flippo told NPR at the time that everything got "edited and convoluted" and he "missed it." Yet it somehow ended up back in his campaign materials.

The photo on his own campaign website shows Flippo with two bronze "V" pins. He has also regularly worn a baseball cap with the "V" next to a bronze star to campaign events, despite openly admitting he didn't earn the medal.

When asked to clarify, he tried to blame it on his grandchildren. Then, in a convoluted statement, he confessed he asked them to put it on his hat.

"You know if you've lived with grandkids, and you know, you kind of know, when you ask them to put those things on your hat," Flippo said before offering further evidence. "Actually, answer me this. I do have another hat that's just like it, because you misplace one or whatever, and that does not have any V devices on it, so and I was like 'where did that other V device go?' So, the grandkids ended up doing that."