Can a GOP agitator flip the purple Las Vegas seat held by a top Democratic lawmaker?

Southern Nevada's state Senate District 8 is fast-growing, affluent and politically moderate. Now, a longtime Republican agitator is seeking to oust veteran legislator Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop (D-Las Vegas) from the seat, which is located in the southwest valley of Las Vegas and includes parts of Summerlin and Spring Valley. George Harris, 65, is a Las Vegas native whose business and political careers have been guided by a penchant for provocation. He founded a tequila company and an alien merchandise store in rural Nevada once visited by the Kardashians. He filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2010, the year before he ran for mayor of Las Vegas as a candidate under his self-created "Tequila Party." He was involved in a failed petition to repeal Legislature-approved tax increases. In 2016, he helped to organize a legally fraught Republican fundraiser , with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as the star guest. Now, after defeating an establishment-backed pick in the GOP primary, Harris is as close as he's ever been to holding office. But it's not the first competitive fight for Dondero Loop, 75, one of the Senate's most powerful members and the chair in 2025 and 2023 of its Finance Committee, which oversees Nevada's budget and spending. She's also a highly effective fundraiser whose name in the district is well established, having first run for office in 2008.

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