Familiar firebrands face Lombardo-backed contender in Republican SOS primary

Shirley Folkins-Roberts, the perceived frontrunner in the Republican primary for Nevada Secretary of State, has outraised her primary opponents and has been backed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

She hasn’t responded to numerous questions about President Donald Trump’s recent attempts to override state election procedure or if she agreed with unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in recent elections. 

Jim Marchant, an election denier who is among the four Republicans running in the primary, criticized Lombardo for backing a candidate that has been mostly unknown.

“Nobody even knows who she is,” Marchant said. “That’s pretty interesting that Lombardo would put her up. I know what I think … but I’m not going to say it. Lombardo and I aren’t exactly on the same wave length.” 

The race for Secretary of State comes as Trump, who has been unrelenting in pushing false claims about election fraud, has backed several federal initiatives that could override Nevada election procedures if implemented.  

Alongside Marchant, Folkins-Roberts, will face former Assemblymember Sharron Angle, another well-known perennial candidate, and Socorro Keenan in the June primary in an attempt to unseat the Democratic incumbent Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar

Angle, Marchant and Keenan have run – and perpetually lost – in numerous races. This is Folkins-Roberts, a Reno-based businesswoman, attorney and nonprofit executive, first time running for office. 

In her campaign announcement last month, Folkins-Roberts cited her career “working with families, businesses, and community leaders to solve problems and move important projects forward,” influencing her decision to run. 

“Nevada deserves elections people trust and a Secretary of State’s office that helps businesses succeed and create jobs,” Folkins-Roberts said in a statement when she announced.

The most recent campaign finance report showed she has raised $100,791 – $22,000 was from herself – outpacing all other candidates. 

Angle has raised $15,000 and Keenan raised $1,200, while Marchant reported zero dollars according to state campaign reports. Marchant, who initially sought to run in the 1st Congressional District’s Republican primary, reported $4,000 in his filings from the Federal Elections Commission from that race.  

Lombardo announced last month he would support Folkins-Roberts, pointing to her background in business and law. 

“At a time when American trust in elections is at an all-time low, Shirley is committed to commonsense election reforms like Voter ID and ensuring ballots are received by Election Day – the kind of reforms that have broad bipartisan support and improve voter confidence and trust in the process,” Lombardo said on a social media post.

Nevada Current emailed a list of questions to Folkins-Roberts to ask about her top priorities if elected and if there are state election procedures or regulations she would seek to change. 

Trump signed an executive order this month that seeks to create a national list of all the voting-age citizens in each state and directs the U.S. Postal Service to control which voters automatically receive mail-in ballots — and which voters don’t – and withhold federal funds from states and localities that don’t comply. 

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, along with Aguilar, announced last week he was suing Trump, declaring the executive order  another attempt by Trump to disrupt the state’s existing election procedures and undermine the electorate’s faith in the process.

Would Folkins-Roberts have proceeded differently?

Neither the candidate nor her campaign responded to, or even acknowledged, questions about her quest to be Nevada’s top elections official.

Jim Marchant

As the Republican nominee for secretary of state in 2022, Marchant received 47% of the vote to Aguilar’s 49%. 

Marchant told the Current he switched from the CD1 race to run for secretary of state again because the office fits his interests better. He also suggested Republican party insiders urges him to make the switch, though he declined to name names. 

“Just like Democrats get together and decide who they want to run and what seat, we do too,” he added. 

Although an ardent Trump supporter and, like Trump, an inveterate election denier, Marchant said he doesn’t agree with Trump’s executive order seeking to change Nevada’s election system.  

“I understand what he is trying to do,” Marchant said.

But, he added, “I am a state’s rights guy. I don’t think the federal government should have a say of what we do here. It should be up to the states. We do have a problem with our election system. We have to clean that up. I don’t want to have a federal law or Constitutional amendment or government change the Constitution to fix this.”

Though he disagreed with the order, he said he wouldn’t have sued. 

The office of Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske reviewed the 2020 General Election after alleged “election integrity issues” and found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. 

Despite Lombardo and Republican Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony winning midterm elections in 2022 and Trump winning Nevada in 2024, Marchant still believes “we’ve had fraudulent elections since 2008.”

Marchant stood next to Nevada’s fake electors in December 2020 as they signed phony electoral college certificates that were sent to Congress, an action that would later be revealed as part of the plan hatched by Trump’s legal advisors to stop Joe Biden’s certification as president on Jan. 6, 2021.

Marchant served one term in the Nevada Legislature after being elected in 2016 but lost his reelection in 2018. 

In 2020, he lost a bid for the 4th Congressional District against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford. Marchant also came in third in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2024.  

Over the years, he has advocated for switching to hand counting paper ballots, which is still a top priority for his campaign.

Sharron Angle

Angle, who served in the state legislature from 1999 to 2007, rose the Tea Party wave to national prominence, and notoriety, as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010, but failed to defeat  longtime incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. 

Since then she’s finished second place in several Republican primaries including the 2016 U.S. Senate race, the 2018 primary for the 2nd Congressional District, and the 2024 primary for Senate District 15. 

On her campaign website, she has called on Nevada’s U.S. senators to support the SAVE Act, a Republican-backed bill that would require individuals to present documents proving their citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to government officials in person to register to vote. 

Like Folkins-Roberts, Angle didn’t respond to requests for comment

Keenan’s website says she has helped people connect with jobs and supported small business startups. 

She came in second in a Republican primary for Assembly District 16 in 2024. In 2022 she  finished last of seven candidates (and was one of four receiving fewer votes than ‘none of these candidates’) in the Republican primary for secretary of state that was won by Marchant.

Socorro Keenan

Keenan did not respond to requests for an interview. But in a brief exchange with a Current reporter at Trump’s Las Vegas event last week, Keenan said she believed Aguilar should “lose his (attorney’s) license” for filing a lawsuit against Trump’s efforts to assert control over Nevada election procedures.

That suit is being filed by the state attorney general’s office on behalf of the secretary of state’s office, and not by Aguilar.

April Corbin Girnus contributed to this story.