Jesse Law faces challengers for Clark County Republican Party chair

Clark County Republican Party Chair Jesse Law faces multiple challengers to his leadership as political parties gear up for the 2026 election.

The county party will vote on new officers July 15. The winner will usher the party through the 2026 midterms, when Republicans are expected to target Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, whose district is the most contentious, and attempt to flip Democratic seats in the Legislature and the Clark County Commission.

Candidates for party chair include Law, Jill Douglass, Bob Olson and Stan Vaughn. The deadline for members to self-nominate is July 8, so the list may grow.

The election follows a recent controversy for Law. He was charged with stalking and negotiated a deal in March requiring him to stay out of trouble for six months and maintain no contact with the victim.

“I did face some legal challenges, and I accepted responsibility for a minor matter,” Law told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I did so because I wanted to keep the focus where it should belong, and that’s building our organization and all the things that we have in front of us.”

Law also was named as a defendant in an ongoing lawsuit with the shareholders of Vinco Ventures, a digital company whose shareholders accused the board of squandering the company’s assets. His case as a so-called “fake elector” from 2020 is also still ongoing.

Law stressed that Republican leaders stand with him — including Gov. Joe Lombardo, who endorsed his re-election campaign.

He listed his accomplishments, pointing to Republican victories in 2022 and 2024, including capturing seats in both the Assembly and state Senate, the Clark County Commission and the school board. In 2024, President Donald Trump lost Clark County — long considered a Democratic stronghold — by only 2.5 percentage points, which Law views as an improvement.

Other candidates, however, say leadership is lacking, fundraising and candidate support could be better and that it is time for fresh blood.

Meet the candidates.

Jill Douglass

Douglass, president of the Battle Born Republican Women of Southern Nevada, previously ran for state Senate to represent District 6 in 2024 and challenged Law for Clark County Republican Party chair in 2023.

Douglass said the goal of a county party is to champion conservatives who share the party’s values and get those individuals elected into office. In that regard, the party has not been successful, she said.

It’s challenging for Republicans to win in Clark County, but the party can do a better job vetting and developing candidates — and supporting them by attracting volunteers and improving voter registration, Douglass said.

Douglass said Republicans need to build a party that donors have confidence in, and she said there has to be more transparency.

As a former candidate for state Senate, Douglass said she had no support from the county party and said the county party’s focus was on Trump.

The wins Republicans did see — such as April Becker winning a seat on the Clark County Commission and Rebecca Edgeworth winning Assembly District 35 — can be attributed to individual candidates’ campaigns and their efforts, not to the county party, Douglass said.

If elected by Clark County Republican Party members, Douglass wants to focus on fundraising and improving communication with the community in order to grow membership.

She said Law’s reputation harms the party’s brand and discourages donors from contributing.

“Our party deserves better than that,” she said. “We deserve effective leadership. We deserve leadership that helps us build a brand.”

Jesse Law

Law was first elected as chair of the county party in 2021 and won re-election in June 2023. Before that, he was the state party’s political director and a former Trump White House employee.

Law said Republicans saw success in 2022 when they flipped the governor’s seat, and he said his goal in 2024 was to focus on unity. He said the 2024 election was the best a Republican presidential candidate has performed in Clark County since 1988. He also said the voter registration in Clark County is the best it’s been in 20 years.

The chairman said donations have improved in the last two years, and the county party recently held its largest Lincoln Day fundraiser.

In response to his opponents’ criticisms that he did not do enough to help candidates down the ballot, Law said he and the county party serves as a foot soldier for its big sister organization, the Nevada Republican Party. The party divided up responsibilities, and he was told to focus on the presidential election.

“My job, as I hear those priorities, is to be a rising tide that raises all boats,” Law said. “We’re part of the team; we’re not going to go rogue.”

Law said he was a regular participant in Edgeworth’s campaign door-knocking.

“I am as passionate about picking up those positions as anybody else. I do follow the lead of the edicts of my partners, and I think we divided it up, and that the improvements we can make next time are a lot about how we focus on issues that won Nevada in 2024.”

If re-elected, Law said his goals include flipping legislative seats in the southwest ahead of the 2025 session, as well as targeting federal seats and another Clark County Commission seat.

Bob Olson

Olson is a longtime Republican and joined the Clark County Republican Party a couple of years ago after moving from Wyoming. Olson, a veteran, worked at the VA and served as a chief steward for the American Federation of Government Employees. In 2024, he ran for Assembly District 17, losing to Democratic Assemblymember Linda Hunt.

Olson said he wants to bring open-mindedness and respect back to the Republican Party and help elect Republicans to federal office.

“We need to grow and bring respect, prosperity back to the Republican Party, have a message that everybody can relate to,” Olson said.

He emphasized that there hasn’t been a Republican senator or congressman in the last 10 years, with the exception of Rep. Mark Amodei in Northern Nevada.

Olson said the party isn’t drawing new people in because of poor leadership, and he said the county party has a monetary problem it needs to correct.

He wants to set up a savings account for the party that would be used to bank 25 cents of every dollar the party brings in; in five years, he said, the party would have $500,000 to help candidates.

To draw new people into the party, especially young people, Olson would connect with high schools and offer a program in which students can help with campaigns and the party will write a letter of recommendation to a college for them.

Olson thinks he can help bring over voters using his union background by visiting unions and showing them that the Republican Party believes in working with the unions.

“I bring new life, new blood, new ideas and a new direction for the Clark County Republican Party,” Olson said.

Stan Vaughan

Vaughan previously ran for Assembly District 20 in 2024 but lost to Assemblymember David Orentlicher. He has lived in Nevada for 38 years, is an accomplished chess player and has a background in business administration and accounting.

If elected as chair, Vaughan’s goal would be to bring unity to the county party and get Republicans elected to the Senate and House, he said.

He said he’d save the party money by re-using campaign signs or holding events outside.

Vaughan said he also wants to make sure there’s a qualified Republican candidate running in every single race and provide those candidates with assistance from the party.

He’d also work to get the entire party involved in events, Vaughan said.

“The current leadership doesn’t seem to delegate enough things out to the commission districts and other people,” Vaughan said. “When you try to do too much and over micromanage everything yourself, you’re not as successful at getting different things done.”

Vaughan said he doesn’t like the negativity and vitriol between some of the candidates.

“You need to be working together,” he said.

A previous version of this story misstated how long Stan Vaughan has lived in Nevada.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.