Democratic Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall was defeated in a highly nationalized special election Tuesday by Republican Mark Amodei, a former state GOP chairman and state senator, to become the U.S. representative for most of Nevada, including Washoe County. The seat has never been held by a Democrat.

Marshall called Amodei about 9 p.m., with about 42 percent of the vote counted, to concede the U.S. House District 2 race to her Republican foe. A Democrat has never won the 2nd District since it was created after the 1980 census.

“I called Mr. Amodei and congratulated him on a race well done,” Marshall said.

With 68 percent of precincts reporting, Amodei led Marshall with 57 percent of the vote to her 37 percent.

The victory would have been wider if it was a one-to-one match, some Republicans said. Two other candidates, Tim Fasano of the Independent American Party, a semi-retired former aerospace contractor, CEO and business owner, and nonpartisan Helm Lehmann, who is unemployed after being laid off from Microsoft Licensing, split about 6 percent of the vote.

“The Independent Americans are always conservative, and I think the independents would have gone Republican this time because of the economy,” said Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno.
Amodei, Fasano, Lehmann and Marshall were competing to replace U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Carson City, who was promoted from the U.S. House to the U.S. Senate in May after former U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., resigned over a sex scandal with a former staffer.

Kate Marshall will continue to serve the state of Nevada as its Treasurer.