Below is a transcript of the conversation between KUNR political reporter Lucia Starbuck and Mother Jones reporter Noah Lanard, which is slightly edited for clarity.
Lucia Starbuck: Based on your reporting, Flippo is too broke to personally fund his campaign the way he says he is. Take us through what you’ve learned and what stands out most to you.
Noah Lanard: David Flippo was supposed to file his first financial disclosure when he ran for Congress in 2023 and 2024, legally required to do so once a year. He’s filed zero of those. He’s reported loaning his campaigns more than $2.5 million, and the question was, does he have that much money? What I saw was a number of things that seemed a bit odd. When he purchased his home in 2020, it was about $500,000 or so, he took out a large mortgage on that. More tellingly, in 2025 and 2026, he appears to have taken on debt for home improvement projects at his home in Las Vegas for redoing some floors, it seems like, and putting solar panels on that I’ve of course asked him about, and he has not replied.
Starbuck: Once you did start to see some of those campaign finances, there were some red flags that jumped out at you as well, right?
Lanard: I would call them eyebrow-raising. For example, David Flippo, similar to George Santos, has reported the legal maximum contribution of $7,000 from a large number of his family members, including a niece and a nephew. The nephew graduated from high school in about 2023. So this is a very young man who has never made a political contribution before. You cannot accept money from your mom or dad to make a donation to a candidate, even if it’s your own uncle. It’s called a straw donation, and it’s one of the most clear-cut violations of federal campaign finance law. In a subsequent follow-up, I spoke with another donor who was listed as a major donor to the Flippo campaign, and they assured me that they did not make the donation.
Starbuck: In your most recent story published this week, Flippo has close connections to a venture land reserve in Arizona, which has made major contributions to his campaign, while there are questions about how it will even pay back its investors. Talk about that.
Lanard: This is, I think, where the story gets really interesting. They provided kind of an unofficial financial disclosure to The Nevada Independent. It’s now been more than three weeks, it still has not been officially submitted and signed. When you provide it to the media, it’s not under oath. When you provide it to the House Clerk of Congress, it is under oath. He listed his largest known asset as something called AZ Land Reserve or Arizona Land Reserve. This is a company that is promising investors 20% ‘constant returns for 20 years’ to develop what is effectively a stretch of desert in northwestern Arizona. Not even Bernie Madoff made promises that big. An Arizona real estate development expert said the feasibility of the project was zero. The co-founder of that company has been accused of fraud on multiple occasions as part of prior business dealings. I’ve been told by a potential investor to that company who declined to invest that Flippo was present at all of the investment meetings. Then, hundreds of 1000s of dollars of donations were made by Arizona Land Reserve and its principals either to the Flippo campaign directly or to groups that were supporting him, and that includes a $50,000 contribution to the Nevada Republican Party, which has been reported to have done some work behind the scenes to push Flippo in the primary over his main opponent, James Settelmeyer. And then his other largest asset listed was a company called America First Home Mortgage. According to the records I’ve seen, there is no company in America that goes by that name.
Starbuck: Where could this money possibly come from?
Lanard: I don’t want to speculate on that, but I think what I would say, you know, in George Santos’ case, and another congressman, Andy Ogle’s case, it’s not that money was passing through someone giving $7,000 to a relative. It’s just that it was totally made up. So that’s also a possibility because candidates have a really strong incentive because the media covers this and political experts pay very close attention to this, to show that they’re raising a lot of money. If you report raising $25,000 in a quarter, you’re kind of going to be laughed out of the room.
Starbuck: What does this do to his campaign?
Lanard: One of the ways you can tell a race is close is always to follow the money. Are Republican super PACs, are Democratic super PACs spending money in this race? Because they don’t like to waste their money. That’s clearly happening. This was supposed to be a very safe Republican seat. One of the central things that David Flippo has been facing is reporting that he or his campaign made false claims that he received a Bronze Star with Valor. It’s a huge distinction. A Bronze Star with Valor is incredibly difficult to obtain. It requires heroism in combat. Only about one in 40 Bronze Star recipients got that higher distinction. Flippo was wearing a hat for years that had two Vs right next to his Bronze Star, which would imply that he had a Bronze Star with Valor. That photo got pulled off his website, and he later blamed his grandchildren. This wasn’t the work of toddlers slapping something on Grandpa’s hat. They were pinned in a very orderly way that I think a military veteran would approve of.
Starbuck: Beyond election and campaign finances, are you going to continue to follow the Arizona Land Reserve?
Lanard: Yes, I’m interested to learn what is going on here. If Arizona Land Reserve were to encounter financial difficulties, people who might end up on the losing side of this are the fellow conservatives this company has a history of targeting, and who David Flippo may have helped them to have an air of legitimacy with. And of course, am open to discussing it with David Flippo at any time of his convenience.
