Sharron Angle, a Tea Party politician who ran an ill-fated bid against then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2010, has decided to mount a primary challenge to Nevada GOP Rep. Mark Amodei.
The former Nevada Assembly member announced her new candidacy Monday afternoon on her website, arguing that she will align herself with President Trump in 2018 and help back his agenda.
“Trump proved that America wants Constitutional, free-market conservatism. The reality is the President can lead, but he cannot do it alone. In Congress, we contend with the unpredictable Republicans who support, or do not support, what the American people mandated on Election Day,” she said in a statement.
{mosads}”That’s why I’m announcing my campaign for U.S. Congress (CD 2) in 2018.”
The bid will put Angle up against Amodei, who has held the seat since a special election in 2011.
It won’t be the first time the two have met on a ballot — Angle beat Amodei in the 2010 GOP Senate primary, when she secured the Republican nomination to take on Reid.
That year, Angle had hoped to capture the Tea Party streak sweeping the nation against an unpopular Reid, who had helped navigate the controversial Affordable Care Act through Congress. But Reid cruised to a 6-point victory, despite polling down the stretch showing an Angle lead, thanks in no small part to controversial moments from Angle’s time on the campaign trail.
The Washington Post published audio of Angle floating “Second Amendment remedies” if “Congress keeps going the way it is.” Angle’s campaign also ran some controversial advertisements on illegal immigration.
Nevada’s second congressional district had larger support for Trump (he won the district, 52 percent to 40 percent, according to analysis from Daily Kos) compared to the rest of the state, which Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won by a margin of 48 percent to 46 percent.
Angle is hoping she can have more success tapping into the Trump support in the smaller district than she did during her statewide bid for the GOP senate nomination in 2016. Then, she lost to former Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), a more establishment-backed politician.