Pictured: Rory McShane, NVGOP Chair Michael McDonald, Someone who works for NVGOP, Jim DeGraffenreid. (Source: McShane’s Social Media)

Please note that Jim DeGraffenreid is an ardent supporter of James Settelmeyer and has been actively campaigning for him.

Having worked in the political arena since 1997, your intrepid blogger was no stranger to dirty politics. What has been exceptional to me is how out in the open it is in Nevada. What I observed in my short time in the Nevada political scene were extremes. Do note this post is full of my opinions as well as facts and you should evaluate the conclusions I am drawing from what is known and ask yourself some tough questions.

The Race for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District that is dominating the political news in the State of Nevada, and is getting play nationally. Nearly two weeks ago, Donald Trump shocked some people and endorsed a Las Vegas Financial Planner (who has a history of disciplinary action against his securities license) David Flippo over Douglas/Lyon County Rancher James Settelmeyer. Even more absurd is that Settelmeyer was a Co-Chair of Trump’s campaign in 2020 (and publicly endorsed him again in 2024) and is a 4th Generation Nevadan.

I’ve seen a lot of people write a lot of things, but my take is one I have not seen written – so it is my turn. Rory McShane is the campaign manager for David Flippo and he is also the long time Political Consultant for the Nevada GOP. Michael McDonald is the Chair of the Nevada GOP.

It was a not so well kept secret that Mike McDonald had been lobbying Donald Trump to endorse David Flippo for NV-02 ever since Flippo left his Las Vegas residence and rented a place in Reno. Flippo was running for NV-04 and has been running an extremely negative campaign. Mr. McShane is well-known for brutally aggressive campaign tactics.

In 2026 Fred Simon has publicly stated that he was shopped a file of a dismissed case related to an ex-wife of James Settelmeyer by someone tied to McShane. (I’ve been told other candidates were contacted as well) The Douglas County DA has an active investigation in to the leak as the leak of a sealed, dismissed case is indeed a crime in and of itself – yet the case is being aired by a PAC supporting Flippo. The Settelmeyer campaign has been more direct about how they believe the pipeline worked:

“We have received direct information regarding how sealed court records connected to this matter were obtained and circulated. We understand that these materials moved from a private individual to the spouse of a Douglas County Commissioner, then to a family member working with the political firm retained by David Flippo’s campaign. We further understand that the owner of that firm shared these sealed records with individuals across the state.”

The Nevada Independent reported that Amy Tarkanian – wife of Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian and a longtime Republican activist – is friends with Settelmeyer’s ex-wife.

Her relative, Alex Tarkanian, works at Revolutionizing Microtargeted Campaigns (RMC) – the firm running Flippo’s campaign. RMC is operated by political consultant Rory McShane, Flippo’s lead consultant.

Let’s continue to set the pattern:

The last Nevada GOP Convention (when Flippo was then a candidate for NV-04) looked like a campaign rally for Flippo. Why hasn’t anyone asked if there is a direct financial connection between McShane and McDonald? McShane was on the Dais of that convention for big chunks of time with McDonald as well.

So – We have a political consultant on retainer for the Nevada GOP who happens to be the political consultant for David Flippo. We have the Chair of the Nevada GOP who is also a client of the same consultant. We have a candidate, David Flippo who has a history of extremely negative campaigns and questionable tactics.

But there’s more:

It is my opinion, based on conventional wisdom and scuttlebutt that Mike McDonald is in financial distress because of fighting the prosecution he is currently facing over the “fake elector” stunt in 2021. It is not unreasonable to wonder if there was a financial nexus for McDonald to use his juice with Donald Trump to leverage an endorsement of a weak, flawed candidate in NV-02.

How much juice, with all due respect to retiring congressman Mark Amodei, plenty. How?

Mike McDonald and Crew rigged the Caucus in 2024 to ensure a primary win for Donald Trump in Nevada. That will be my stance until I die as I had more than a front row seat to watch it happen. But McDonald could not do it without his allies at the County Level – including James Settelmeyer helping him do it! They wrote rules that effectively and illegally banned the Never Back Down PAC from participating in the Caucus process. It is Ron DeSantis and team’s fault for not suing. Further, the rules written would have basically given three people veto power over ANY candidate’s delegates – meaning even if someone beat Donald Trump the NVGOP leadership (McDonald) would have picked delegates only bound for one vote.

Make better sense now? McDonald had the juice to pull in a favor from Donald Trump – he jerked off the rules of the 2024 Presidential Primary to guarantee Trump a win (months before the final collapse of DeSantis – I could write a book on that). Don’t kid yourself, McDonald Needs Money.

Still Don’t think McDonald has enough juice with Trump?

How about the Pardon for no apparent reason of a former NVGOP Board Member who got convicted of Fraud?

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.

Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for state treasurer, was found guilty in October of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was out of custody ahead of her sentencing, which had been scheduled for next month.

For a little more fun related to Michele Fiore, enjoy this more current article.

There was no reason given for the pardon, what would you say, “My Boy Mike who cooked up the Nevada Caucus for me asked me to do him a solid so I pardoned his girl?”

Michele Fiore was an officer of the Nevada GOP for several years. It was conventional wisdom at the time this happened that Mike McDonald who knows Trump on a first name basis, who also goes to Mar-A-Lago frequently, made the ask. (The very top photo was taken there) Sigal Chattah, now the US Attorney from Clark County was also on the NVGOP Leadership for a time as well – again another connection to McDonald. The political world is very small.

Look – opinion I know, but you’d have to be a complete Pollyanna fool not to plot McDonald, NVGOP, Flippo, Fiore, the Political Consultant, the Caucus, and the legal/financial maladies on a straight line and not conclude something similar to what I have about the nature of the David Flippo endorsement. McDonald had the access and the Juice to pull it off, in addition he has a solid, documented connection to Rory McShane and Flippo is not the only client of McShane’s that McDonald is alleged to have helped.

So guess what? This is why I believe that the rural counties in the North of Nevada just got royally screwed over by Michael McDonald. For years, he has used them to provide the bulk of the party delegate votes to get re-elected. The math was simple, keep Clark County in chaos so it splits, let Washoe be Washoe and run the table on the Rural Counties. McDonald is the longest tenured State GOP Chairman in America. The Caucus system in Nevada is a complete joke, it is a magnet for the insane as basically whomever shows up pretty much gets on the county party committee. The crazed Robert Beadles and crew proved how that can be abused in Washoe County (I witnessed it firsthand) and I also witnessed firsthand a State Party Convention with the Rural Counties basically holding a coronation for the NVGOP Leadership for an umpteenth term. (Beadles gave Flippo $3500 on 5-30, watch the dem nominee make hay with that in the fall if Flippo wins the primary)

The whole time I worked on the ground in Nevada politics I saw Mike McDonald drive thousands of miles all over the Nevada Desert doing his usual schtick about “Rural Nevada” with hyperbole like “the backbone”, “Real Nevada” in his near ghetto cadence.

Then he set fire to the Rural Nevada poster child James Settelmeyer, using his juice with President Trump to get an endorsement of a Las Vegas Carpetbagger. (How could anyone draw a different conclusion based on the circumstantial evidence?)

I worked for DeSantis against Trump in 2023-2024 and endured the smears against myself and those that worked for me. They were circulated by a lot of the same people that Mike McDonald just screwed over. Because of this, I learned a lot of things about what was going on behind the scenes. I knew then that the fake electors were hurting financially, spending gobs on money on legal fees.

Nothing I am alleging McDonald did is criminal to the best of my knowledge. The actions I believe he took are immoral. Especially so because of the collateral damage caused by the requested actions.

Separate issue, If there was a financial nexus for making the ask, that is a different.  Ask questions people, you got screwed over for a reason, right now only Mike McDonald and God know why. The rest of us are left to ask questions…

I feel bad for all those good people in the North State, many who have known James for years. The only valid result is to change the leadership of the Nevada GOP finally, change the way county parties are elected, change the way the state party is elected, and disinfect it from top to bottom.

I will conclude with this. The Late Michael Triggs, who was married to Janine Hansen many years ago (she of the independent party and the email updates) and I talked around the time I moved to Reno in 2020. Triggs warned me that he had elected dozens of people to office in Nevada and what I had experienced in California politics could only partially prepare me for what I was going to experience in Nevada. He was right. (Triggs passed 1-8-2026 RIP.)