Veterans group backs Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi for re-election

Veterans for America First has thrown its backing behind Brian Kunzi in the Nye County district attorney race, giving the incumbent a public boost as early voting approaches and the June 9 primary nears. The endorsement puts a national veterans-aligned group into a local contest that will shape who controls one of Nye County’s most influential offices.

Kunzi is seeking re-election in 2026 and is facing Michelle Nelson, who opened her campaign with a Feb. 5 kickoff event. Kunzi held a meet-and-greet on Feb. 26, and both candidates appeared in a Nye County Republican Club debate on April 20. The race now moves toward early voting, which runs from Saturday, May 23 through Friday, June 5, before the primary election on Tuesday, June 9.

The endorsement centers on Kunzi’s background as a U.S. Army veteran and former judge advocate. Veterans for America First described itself as a grassroots America First organization founded by veterans and first responders, and said it was drawn to Kunzi’s emphasis on integrity, the rule of law and public safety. Kunzi’s campaign says he wants to create a Veterans Treatment Court for Nye County, arguing that veterans struggling with PTSD too often end up in the criminal justice system for conduct tied to service-related conditions.

Kunzi’s law-enforcement and legal résumé gives the endorsement added weight. The Nevada District Attorneys Association says he was raised in Hawthorne, graduated from Mineral County High School, earned his law degree from McGeorge School of Law in 1983 and served six years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. He was elected Mineral County district attorney in 1994, later served as Nye County district attorney from 2010 to 2014, and spent 12 years in the Nevada Attorney General’s Office as missing children’s coordinator and fraud director.

The district attorney’s office reaches far beyond courtroom prosecutions in a county as large and rural as Nye. Kunzi has said the job includes criminal prosecutions, legal counsel for the county and its officers, child abuse and neglect cases, and child support enforcement. That makes the race about more than party label or biography. It is about who will decide how aggressively Nye County pursues cases, protects victims and handles the legal work that affects daily county government.

Ballotpedia lists Kunzi as holding the office until Jan. 4, 2027, and the race is still open enough that a veterans group endorsement could matter. In a primary where turnout is likely to be low and familiar names carry outsized value, support from Veterans for America First could help reinforce Kunzi’s message to Republican voters that public safety, military service and county legal authority belong in the same column.