Tarkanian, Kihuen win tight Congress primaries

Danny Tarkanian has beaten Michael Roberson in a hotly contested Republican primary for the southern Nevada House seat held by Rep. Joe Heck.

The 3rd Congressional District race was one of the most heated in the primary cycle, with candidates trading negative ads that called each other “Dirty Danny Tarkanian” and “Two-Faced Michael Roberson.”

Tarkanian is a businessman and son of the late UNLV basketball coach Danny Tarkanian. He’s made five unsuccessful bids for office in the past and has criticized Roberson for helping pass a $1.4 billion tax package last year.

Roberson is a lawyer who’s in the middle of his second term in the state Senate.

Other Republican candidates included Assemblywoman Michele Fiore.

Tarkanian will face Democratic synagogue leader Jacky Rosen in November.

State Sen. Ruben Kihuen has won a competitive Democratic primary race in the congressional district that includes North Las Vegas and rural central Nevada.

Kihuen topped former state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, philanthropist Susie Lee and a handful of lesser-known candidates in the hard-fought race. Kihuen will face Republican Cresent Hardy in November.

A rural Nevada assemblyman under fire for supporting last year’s tax increase has survived a Republican primary that included a challenge from a supporter of southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.

James Oscarson of Pahrump was among the few rural Republicans who voted in favor of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s packages of tax hikes and education initiatives.

Assembly District 36 covers parts of Clark, Lincoln and Nye counties.

The speaker of last year’s Nevada State Assembly, Clark County Republican, John Hambrick defeated Clayton Hurst Tuesday night in the GOP primary in Assembly District 2.

Two other Clark County Republicans who backed Sandoval also won their primaries — longtime Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury and Paul Anderson, who served as majority leader in 2015.

In a key state Senate race between former Assembly members in the Summerlin area, tax supporter Erv Nelson lost to Victoria Seaman — a loud critic of the spending plan.