Politics
Flippo campaign revised $7,000 donation after crediting half to a deceased Las Vegas philanthropist
Federal campaign filings showed David Flippo’s campaign first credited $3,500 of a donor’s contribution to Joyce Mack, who died in 2024. The campaign later amended the filing again, assigning the money to primary debt and the general election, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Republican David Flippo’s campaign initially attributed $3,500 of a $7,000 contribution from Marilynn Mack to her mother, Joyce Mack, who died in 2024, according to a Wall Street Journal report based on federal campaign finance filings.
The campaign has since amended the filing again, dividing the $7,000 between primary debt and the general election, the report said. A campaign spokesman, Rory McShane, described the earlier attribution as a clerical error.
Marilynn Mack’s contribution was twice the $3,500 per-election limit for individual donors cited in the report. The campaign reattributed the excess rather than refunding it, the report said.
Joyce Mack was a Las Vegas philanthropist. The Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV bears the name of her late husband, Jerry Mack, and his business partner, E. Parry Thomas.
The filing issue comes as Flippo, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and financial adviser, faces Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson for Nevada’s open 2nd Congressional District seat. The district includes Reno and most of rural Northern Nevada. It has elected only Republicans since its creation after the 1980 census, but recent polling has shown a close contest; a Strategies 360 poll cited in the report gave Flippo a 45%-42% lead.
The donation filing adds to scrutiny of Flippo’s campaign. He has not filed his personal financial disclosure, according to the report, and has invested more than $1.6 million of his own money in the race. He has also faced questions about claims concerning his military service: a Bronze Star he received in 2004 did not carry the “V” device for valor. Flippo apologized in September, saying campaign staff had confused his awards.
Flippo won the Republican primary in June after receiving President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Benitez-Thompson, a former Nevada Assembly majority leader and former chief of staff to state Attorney General Aaron Ford, was added this month to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, which backs competitive races.
Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, who is retiring after representing the district since 2011, has said he will not support Flippo. Amodei told the Journal he would “absolutely not” vote for the candidate and called him a fraud.