House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to campaign in Las Vegas on Tuesday alongside Republican congressional candidates Marty O’Donnell and Carrie Buck, less than a month before Election Day. The Get Out the Vote Rally is scheduled to run from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., though the specific venue had not yet been released.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the rally's location will be announced 24 hours before the event starts. O’Donnell is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, who has represented Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, while Buck is taking on Rep. Dina Titus, who represents Nevada’s 1st Congressional District.
O’Donnell brings an unusual resume to the race: he’s a composer best known for scoring the Halo video game franchise, per the same Review-Journal report. His campaign website lists building a resilient economy, border security, restoring a vision of the United States as a land of opportunity, and addressing the national debt among his top priorities.
Two Republicans, Two Very Different Money Pictures
Buck, a sitting Nevada state senator, taught English as a second language at an elementary school in Las Vegas. Her campaign promises to protect parents’ rights, secure the border, fully fund police, ensure tips are never taxed, and work with the president to hold Washington accountable for taxpayer dollars.
The two campaigns look nothing alike on paper. Buck raised $1,358,573 in total receipts through May 20, edging out Titus’s $1,253,003 over the same period, as reported by the Las Vegas Sun. But Buck entered the general election with just $534,571 in cash on hand and $26,012 in debt, compared with Titus’s $1,096,964 in cash and zero debt.
O’Donnell’s numbers tell a different story. His FEC filings through June 23 showed $3,482,357.89 in total receipts, but $3 million of that figure came from a personal loan he made to his own campaign, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Lee, meanwhile, entered the general election phase with $3,310,177.95 in cash on hand and no debt, while O’Donnell carried $2,326,168.39 in cash alongside that outstanding $3 million loan.
A Composer's Primary Win and the GOP's Prized Recruit
O’Donnell won a four-way Republican primary on June 9 with 42% of the vote, while Buck dominated her primary field, taking 78% of the Republican vote the same day. The Nevada Independent has described the 3rd District as one of the Republican Party's top targets nationally.
Buck's district tells a tougher story on paper: The Cook Political Report rates Nevada’s 1st Congressional District as “Likely Democrat,” according to The Nevada Independent. Buck outraised Titus for three consecutive quarters this cycle.
Where O'Donnell Stands on Immigration, Medicaid and Social Security
On policy, O’Donnell has said undocumented immigrants who commit additional crimes in the United States should be deported, according to a Nevada Independent issues breakdown. He opposed raising the Social Security retirement age above 67 while emphasizing the need to address the national debt, and he opposed reinstating enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, arguing they would not fix the healthcare system. He also supported requiring 80 hours of monthly work for Medicaid eligibility and generally backed unlocking federal land for development, though he said the process should move faster than current proposals allow.
O’Donnell’s own campaign site, martyforcongress.vote, frames automation and artificial intelligence as forces reshaping the labor force, arguing the technology is replacing or automating blue- and white-collar jobs alike. The same site points to the national debt surpassing $35 trillion as justification for evaluating government spending and pursuing a balanced budget, and lists targeting human and drug trafficking as part of his border security push.
Tuesday’s rally puts Johnson squarely behind both campaigns as Election Day approaches, though it remains unclear what crowd size or turnout the event will draw once its location is finally announced.
