Nevada Republican candidates largely mum on birthright citizenship

A number of Nevada Republican candidates, including Gov. Joe Lombardo, are declining to say where they stand on President Donald Trump’s pivot to a legislative effort to impose restrictions on birthright citizenship, the long-standing right granted to babies born to immigrants in the United States. 

One in five Nevadans are immigrants, according to the American Immigration Council. An estimated 320,000 children in Nevada live with at least one immigrant parent.  

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s first-day-in-office executive order restricting birthright citizenship, prompting the president to declare hours later that Congress should be able to “easily” pass legislation eliminating the right. Congressional Republicans, however, are split. 

The Nevada Republican Party, of which Lombardo is the figurehead, opposes birthright citizenship in its 2024 platform, which remains in effect following the GOP’s failure to pass its 2026 platform at the state convention in May. 

“It wasn’t what was in the platform. It was just an issue of people feeling like there was a lack of representation,” says Clark County Republican Party Chairperson Jill Douglass. 

Lombardo has long refused to state his position on birthright citizenship. When Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term restricting the right, Lombardo would not comment.

The race between Lombardo and his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Aaron Ford, is one of the most closely watched in the nation. 

Nevadans “deserve better than Lombardo’s subservience to Donald Trump – we need leaders who are unafraid to stand up for the rule of law and our most fundamental rights,” Ford said in a statement to the Current. Ford noted he “took action to protect Nevadans from Trump’s assault on birthright citizenship” as soon as it began, referring to a lawsuit he and attorneys general from other states filed on January 21, 2025. 

“Joe Lombardo’s failure to support birthright citizenship, the established law of our land, is yet more proof that he’s not fit to be our Governor,” Ford said. 

Former State Sen. Patricia Farley-Moore, who ran for office as a Republican but left the party in 2016 over policy differences, says it would make sense if Lombardo would prefer not to talk about Trump’s continued push to eliminate birthright citizenship.

“If he had good people on his side, they’d be saying ‘we’ve got such significant problems in our state, that’s just not even on the horizon.’ That’s not lowering the cost of housing. It’s not bettering schools. It’s not improving anybody’s life. I would not be talking about stuff that wasn’t directly impacting my voters,” says Farley-Moore.

“If the majority of Republicans aren’t talking about it, I wouldn’t, as a candidate, be talking about it,” she says, adding moderate Republicans “don’t really care” about birthright citizenship. “Only the devout right think that birthright citizenship is a big deal.” 

The issue has not always been reserved for the conservative fringe in Nevada. 

In 1993, then-U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who went on to become the Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate, introduced the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993, which sought to end the right of citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants.

The bill included provisions that explicitly clarified the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, stating that a person born in the U.S. to an alien mother who is not a lawful resident is not a U.S. citizen. Reid argued at the time that no country should offer a “reward for being an illegal immigrant.”

Reid later had a change of heart and became a fierce advocate for ‘Dreamers’ — children brought to the U.S. illegally. But his concerns in 1993 echo those of Trump.  

Republican candidate for Congressional District 3, Marty O’Donnell, supports the president’s goal to eliminate birthright citizenship , but notes amending the constitution is a long process, says spokesman Keith Schiffer.

Amending the constitution would require two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the states. 

O’Donnell favors addressing birth tourism in the interim.  

“We know that a lot of that kind of tourism happens around the country,” Schiffer said, adding O’Donnell “wants to see what more can be done to kind of crack down on the birth tourism industry immediately.” 

The position puts O’Donnell at direct odds with his Democratic opponent, Rep. Susie Lee, who is unequivocal in her support for birthright citizenship. 

Nevada Republican congressional candidates Carrie Buck (CD1) and David Flippo (CD2) did not respond to requests for comment, while Cody Whipple (CD4) declined to comment. 

All of their Democratic opponents support birthright citizenship. 

Born in the U.S.A.

Babies born to mothers with addresses outside the U.S. are rare. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in 2024 some 9,600 mothers with addresses outside of the U.S. gave birth in the United States.

“However, academic reviews suggest true intent-based birth tourism is closer to between 2,000 and 10,000 births annually, representing less than 0.3% of the over 3.5 million total U.S. births each year,” reports the Migration Policy Institute. 

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War in 1868, was intended to ensure former slaves became citizens. 

Critics, such as Trump, contend the right is a motivating force for undocumented individuals to migrate to the U.S. and is a drain on social services. 

Fifty-eight percent of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from late June, including more than half of independents, 38% of Republicans, and 72% of Democrats.

In 2023, immigrants in Nevada contributed $5.9 billion in tax revenue to the state, according to the American Immigration Council. They account for almost a quarter of Nevada’s labor force, according to the AIC – making up 26.7% of entrepreneurs, 18.2% of STEM workers, and 30.2% of nurses in the state. 

A Pew Research review of data from 2021 found Nevada had the highest percentage of undocumented workers in the nation.

“I’ve been around so many talented kids whose parents are immigrants,” says Republican political consultant Lisa Mayo DeRiso, adding it “doesn’t make sense” to restrict citizenship of those born here. 

“Republicans in this cycle have a big mountain to climb,” she said. “When the Supreme Court has struck down Trump’s executive order, I think it’s dangerous and out of touch with the state’s population to run against giving babies born here their birthright.”