Nevada GOP candidate files court challenge of primary loss
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A candidate for Nevada governor who lost the Republican primary in June is contesting the results in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit from defeated candidate Joey Gilbert challenges a primary election win by Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and was filed with state District Court in Carson City, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.
Lombardo beat Gilbert by 11 percentage points, our about 26,000 votes, in a crowded field. Gilbert already paid for a statewide recount that did not change the outcome.
In Nevada and beyond, this year’s Republican primaries have revealed a new political strategy among numerous candidates who are denying the results of elections and insisting results were rigged in a strategy with echoes of President Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020.
Gilbert — who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — is alleging in his lawsuit that election results were erroneous and that corrections would show he won by a wide margin.
Gilbert campaigned on false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He said his challenges to the primary election outcome are not about his loss but election integrity overall.
The June 14 primary contest in Nevada otherwise proved largely successful for candidates endorsed by Trump and those who have called the 2020 election fraudulent.
