LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former Nevada state lawmaker Jim Marchant secured the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state Monday, putting one of the state’s most vocal promoters of election fraud theories in position to potentially run the office that manages voting in a key presidential swing state.
Marchant’s victory following Nevada’s June 9 primary means he will face a rematch this November against Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, the same opponent who defeated him four years ago.
Whoever wins in the fall will be responsible for overseeing the 2028 presidential election in Nevada — a state that backed President Donald Trump in 2024 after supporting Democrat Joe Biden four years prior.
Marchant has repeatedly raised doubts about the security of Nevada’s elections. He has alleged that both he and Trump were cheated by election fraud in 2020, when Marchant lost his congressional race for Nevada’s 4th District to Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford — even though officials found no credible evidence of widespread fraud.
He has also claimed mail-in ballots were fraudulent, despite the fact that he himself cast a mail ballot while registered to vote in Florida.
In December 2020, Marchant stood alongside six Nevada Republicans who signed false electoral certificates falsely declaring Trump had won the state — when Biden had actually carried Nevada by more than 33,000 votes. Those six individuals still face charges brought by the attorney general’s office.
The Nevada secretary of state at the time, a Republican, had her office examine numerous fraud allegations submitted by Republicans and determined them to be either unfounded or already under investigation, specifically refuting thousands of claims. An Associated Press review of potential fraud cases across the six battleground states where Trump contested his 2020 loss uncovered fewer than 475 total — nowhere near enough to have changed the outcome. In Nevada specifically, the number of possible fraud cases amounted to less than 0.3% of Biden’s winning margin.
In the Republican primary, Marchant beat both the candidate endorsed by Gov. Joe Lombardo — Shirley Folkins-Roberts, who had rejected claims of widespread fraud in Nevada elections — and former lawmaker Sharron Angle. Folkins-Roberts acknowledged her loss in a statement Monday.
