Come November, Republican nominee David Flippo should sail to victory and become the newest lawmaker representing Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, rated “Solid R” by the Cook Political Report.
But the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel appears to already be violating a federal insider trading and transparency law, having never filed required personal financial disclosures for his heavily self-funded campaign.
The law required Flippo to disclose various details — personal assets, debts and sources of income — by May 15. There is no record of him submitting the required paperwork to Congress or otherwise requesting an extension.
There is also no record of Flippo filing a personal financial disclosure during his campaign for U.S. House in 2024.
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These missing financial details are particularly notable given that Flippo has personally loaned his congressional campaign more than $1.6 million, according to Federal Election Commission records, but the source of his wealth remains unclear.
Aside from Flippo’s apparent lack of a financial disclosure, one of his opponents filed an FEC complaint that accused him of misusing campaign funds — which his campaign strongly denies. Flippo was also fired from a job in the financial services industry after his company accused him of violating policies and regulations.
As for the missing financial disclosures, “Mr. Flippo is in the process of closing one of his businesses to focus on serving the people of Northern Nevada, while he moves his other businesses, investments, and landholdings into a blind trust,” Thomas Datwyler, Flippo’s campaign treasurer, told NOTUS. “That is a complicated process, and his financial disclosure will be filed once that is complete.”
Rory McShane, a general consultant for Flippo’s campaign, confirmed that Flippo had not yet filed a disclosure but said he plans to file the paperwork “after that process is completed.”
Datwyler himself has faced significant scrutiny during his career as a Republican political committee financial operative, including FEC penalties, a criminal investigation and a Justice Department complaint for his previous work across multiple states.
“Filing politically motivated complaints against campaign treasurers is very commonplace,” McShane said in response to a question about the campaign working with Datwyler.
Most notably, Datwyler was believed to be Rep. George Santos’ “shadow treasurer” before Congress voted to expel the disgraced New York Republican in December 2023. The House Ethics Committee found that Santos had misused campaign funds for personal expenses, deceived donors and improperly filed campaign finance reports, among other violations. Santos also pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraud and identity theft and was serving a seven-year prison sentence when President Donald Trump commuted it last year.
Datwyler maintained that he never worked as Santos’ treasurer because he turned down the job before appearing on the FEC paperwork for the congressman.
Datwyler even asked for a criminal investigation into how his name appeared on the campaign forms — though Datwyler’s lawyer told the FEC he wished to retract correspondence he submitted requesting the probe because he lost “confidence in the accuracy and veracity of the information provided by Mr. Datwyler.”
Datwyler did not respond to NOTUS’ questions about his past connection to Santos or when the Flippo campaign expects to submit the financial disclosure.
“In the case of Mr. Flippo, financial disclosures are particularly important because he’s reported lending at least $1.6 million to his campaign but has not filed the required report that would help establish whether he had the income and assets to make such a substantial loan,” Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at Campaign Legal Center, wrote in a statement.
“If you want a recent example of why this is so important, think of (now-disgraced) former Rep. George Santos,” Fischer added. “The discrepancy between the personal loans Santos reported making to his campaign and the meager assets he reported provided an early indication that something was amiss.”
Earlier this year, Flippo wrote on X that he’s largely self-funding his campaign “because I will not be beholden to anyone but the people.”
Flippo spent more than 25 years in the Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, ending his service in 2009. For the next decade, he worked in Alaska as a maintenance team leader for oil company BP. Flippo then began working as a financial adviser in 2019 for the firm First Command, but in 2024, the company fired him for allegedly violating internal policies.
“The registered representative violated numerous company policies and regulatory regulations related to electronic communications, books and records. [sic] and customer identification,” the firm wrote in a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure on Flippo’s termination. “No client harm was involved.”
First Command did not respond to a request for comment on Flippo’s termination.
“Brokers and brokerages part ways all the time,” McShane said, adding that all of Flippo’s “financial licenses are in good standing and active.”
One of Flippo’s 12 opponents in the Republican primary, former Eureka County Sheriff Jesse Watts, filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that Flippo used campaign funds to rent a house — something that would violate federal election laws, which generally prohibits candidates from using campaign cash for personal uses.
Flippo’s campaign paid tens of thousands of dollars for expenditures described as “rent” to Blue Sierra Realty, which had advertised a property Flippo identified as his “home in Reno” on social media.
Flippo denied the allegations, and his campaign provided local TV stations News 4 and Fox 11 with lease agreements showing that he is also renting a different property in Sparks, a city adjacent to Reno, through Blue Sierra Realty.
“No, my home is not being paid for by my campaign,” Flippo told the stations earlier this year. “We had a campaign headquarters, you know, that we rented, right? And that’s what they’re seeing. They’re seeing a real estate transaction. Well, yeah, campaigns have campaign offices.”
“The Flippo campaign provided leases showing no campaign funds were ever used to pay for a personal residence,” McShane told NOTUS. “A separate residence was used for short-term staff housing, no different than a hotel.”
The FEC doesn’t have enough commissioners to investigate and rule on campaign finance complaints, so it’s all but assured that the agency won’t consider Watts’ complaint before Election Day on Nov. 3.
On that date, Flippo is set to face Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson. Flippo has Trump’s endorsement, but he hasn’t secured the backing of the district’s current congressman, Republican Mark Amodei, who is retiring.
When asked by Nevada Newsmakers whether he would endorse Flippo, Amodei said, “No, not my cup of tea.”
Flippo originally entered the race for Nevada’s 4th District, but he switched to the 2nd District in early March after Amodei announced he would not seek reelection.
Amodei endorsed former state Senate Minority Leader James Settelmeyer in the primary. Gov. Joe Lombardo also endorsed Settelmeyer but, unlike Amodei, has now thrown his support behind Flippo.
“You pull out of CD-4 72 hours after I say I’m not coming back,” Amodei said of Flippo in the Nevada Newsmakers interview. “You run an absolutely scurrilous campaign against a guy who’s one of the nicest guys around.”
Republicans need Flippo to win Amodei’s seat to help maintain their slim majority in the House.
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