Mark Amodei, a senior GOP appropriator, to retire at end of term

Aidan Quigley, CQ-Roll Call on Feb 6, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Longtime House appropriator Mark Amodei, R-Nev., who currently oversees spending for the Department of Homeland Security, announced Friday that he will not run for reelection in November.

“I came to Congress to solve problems and to make sure our State and Nation have a strong voice in the federal policy and oversight processes,” Amodei said in a statement. “I look forward to finishing my term. After 15 years of service, I believe it is the right time for Nevada and myself to pass the torch.”

Since prevailing in a special election in 2011, Amodei has grown accustomed to winning reelection by comfortable margins.

His 2nd District spans a wide swath over the northern third of Nevada and includes Reno and the state capital, Carson City. It’s also Nevada’s reddest seat, and the race to succeed him will likely draw a large crowd of GOP candidates.

President Donald Trump carried the district by 14 points in 2024, according to calculations by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. Amodei won a seventh full term the same year by 19 points over independent Greg Kidd, who is running this cycle as a Democrat.

Amodei serves as one of the 12 Appropriations subcommittee chairs, known as “cardinals.” His bill, the Homeland Security measure, is currently the subject of tense negotiations as the only one of the 12 full-year fiscal 2026 bills not enacted into law. That bill was stripped from a final package of several spending measures after a second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

Negotiators now face a Feb. 13 deadline for funding for the agency, with a wide divide between Democratic demands and what Republicans are indicating they could accept on immigration enforcement measures.

Amodei, 67, was first elected in a special election to replace Dean Heller, who was appointed to the Senate. Before getting elected to Congress, he was a member of both the Nevada Assembly and Senate, including serving as the Senate president pro tempore from 2003 to 2008. Immediately before his election to Congress, where he has served in recent years as his delegation’s only Republican, he led the Nevada Republican Party from 2010 to 2011.

Along with his Appropriations role, Amodei has been an advocate for selling public land in Nevada for further development. The federal government owns 80% of the land in the state, and Amodei championed an amendment to the 2025 budget reconciliation law that would have sold 90,000 acres in the state.

While the amendment was adopted in the House Natural Resources Committee, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., removed it amid opposition from some Republicans from Western states.

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—Daniela Altimari contributed to this report.