Dean Heller announces Monday that he will seek the Republican nomination for Nevada governor.
Saying Nevada is being crushed by the actions of Gov. Steve Sisolak, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller announced Monday he is running for governor.
He said in one term, Sisolak has, “put Nevada at the top of every bad list.” He said if he is elected, there will be no more lockdowns or mask mandates.
Heller also charged that violent crime has “exploded” in Clark County since Sisolak took office. Graduation rates, he said, are down but suicides are up.
“We have a governor more interested in locking us out of work than putting us back to work,” he said.
Sisolak and legislative Democrats, he said, have also made it easier to cheat in an election. He said on day one, he would issue an executive order mandating voter ID for every election. Heller said he also wants to prohibit ballot harvesting because, if those collecting the ballots disagree with your choices, they can simply throw the ballot in a dumpster.
“In one term, if you’re a Nevadan, you’re less likely to have a job, more likely to become a victim of crime. This is all on Sisolak,” he said.
Heller said everyone wants the same things: good jobs, good schools and safe neighborhoods.
Heller said as governor, “I will fully fund education if the Legislature will give me choice in education.”
He said that means charter schools, home schooling and parental ability to ensure their kids are in a good school.
Heller said when he lost his Senate seat four years ago, “I thought I was done with politics.”
But he said he can’t stand what he has been seeing happen in Nevada.
“I’m running for governor because Nevada deserves a governor who’s a whole lot better than this guy.”
Heller, a Republican, was raised in Carson City, graduated from Carson High and earned a business degree from USC. He was a stock broker when he ran for and won a seat in the Nevada Assembly. He served two terms then ran for Secretary of State. He served three terms, 12 years in that office.
Heller replaced Jim Gibbons in the House of Representatives, serving from 2007-11. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate after John Ensign resigned in 2011. He won a Senate term in his own right in 2012 but lost his re-election bid in 2018.
He lives in Smith Valley with his wife, Lynne.
Heller joins an increasingly crowded Republican primary including North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo, Dr. Fred Simon, businessman Guy Nohra and Reno attorney Joey Gilbert.
