Brothel owner wins GOP primary in Nevada

The owner of some of the country’s few remaining legal brothels is a step away from claiming a seat in Nevada’s state legislature after he won a Republican primary in a rural district outside Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Dennis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch and a handful of other legal brothels and the star of the HBO series “Cathouse,” took 43 percent of the vote on Tuesday. He beat out Assemblyman James Oscarson (R), who claimed 36 percent of the vote, and a third candidate who took 21 percent.

Hof mounted his second bid for public office after state officials proposed banning brothels from operating in two of the seven counties in which they are still legal.

{mosads}He ran against Oscarson in 2016 as a Libertarian candidate. Oscarson won that race with more than 60 percent of the vote.

This time, Hof cast himself as the “Trump of Pahrump,” his hometown. In April, he campaigned alongside Roger Stone, President Trump’s longtime political adviser. He also sent frequent screeds, jammed with different fonts, sizes and colors, to reporters, calling the news updates “The HOFington Post.”

Hof is highly likely to win the seat in November’s midterm elections, when he will face Democrat Lesia Romanov. The district, mainly centered in Nye County, gave Trump more than a two-to-one edge over Hillary Clinton in 2016.