Dean Heller
Dean Arthur Heller is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States senator representing Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 15th secretary of state of Nevada from 1995 to 2007 and U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2011. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Brian Sandoval and elected to a full term in the 2012 election. Heller was defeated in the 2018 election, losing to Democrat Jacky Rosen, and was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Nevada in 2022. As of 2025, he is the last Republican to have won a U.S. Senate race in Nevada.
Early life and education
Heller was born in Castro Valley, California, to Janet and Charles Alfred "Jack" Heller, a mechanic and stock car driver. He moved to Carson City, Nevada with his family when he was nine months old. He has five siblings.He graduated from Carson High School in 1978, and was accepted into the University of Southern California, where he earned his BBA, specializing in finance and securities analysis, from the USC Marshall School of Business in 1985. At USC, Heller joined the Sigma Nu social fraternity and the Trojan Knights.
Early career
Nevada Assembly
Heller served two terms in the Nevada Assembly from 1990 to 1994. He represented Carson City, the capital of Nevada. During his time in the Nevada Assembly, Heller worked as a senior commercial banking consultant for Bank of America.Nevada secretary of state
Heller was elected secretary of state of Nevada in 1994 and reelected in 1998 and 2002, serving from 1995 to 2007, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. As Secretary of State, Heller made Nevada the first state in the nation to implement an auditable paper trail to electronic voting machines.U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2006
Heller decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005 in Nevada's 2nd congressional district, after ten-year incumbent Republican Jim Gibbons decided to run for Governor of Nevada. On August 15, 2006, he won the Republican primary with 36% of the vote. He narrowly defeated State Assemblywoman Sharron Angle by 421 votes. Angle received 35% of the vote and former state Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons received 25% of the vote.In the general election, Heller defeated Democratic nominee and University of Nevada Regent Jill Derby, by a 49% to 46% margin. Derby carried Washoe County, home to Reno and the largest county in the district. However, Heller ran up enough of a margin in the rest of the district to win. He was likely helped by Gibbons' presence atop the ticket; Gibbons carried his former district in a landslide in his successful run for governor. It was only the third close race in the district since its creation in 1983.
2008
Heller won the Republican primary again, this time defeating James W. Smack 86% to 14%. In a rematch, Heller defeated Derby in the general election, 52% to 41%. This time he won every county in the district except Clark County.2010
In 2009, Heller was rumored to be a candidate to challenge embattled incumbent Republican Governor Jim Gibbons or Democratic United States Senator Harry Reid in 2010. He declined to run for Nevada Governor or U.S. Senator and instead chose to run for reelection.He was challenged in the Republican primary again. He defeated Patrick J. Colletti 84%–16%. He won reelection to a third term, defeating Nancy Price 63%–36%.
Tenure
During his tenure, Heller was Vice Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, playing a leading role in advocating for issues that impact western U.S. states. He opposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program.Committee assignments
- Committee on Ways and Means
- *Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
- *Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures
U.S. Senate
Elections
2012
In March 2011, after U.S. Senator John Ensign announced his resignation, Heller declared that he would run for the United States Senate in 2012 to succeed him. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval then appointed Heller to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by Ensign's resignation. Heller took office on May 9, 2011.In his bid for a full Senate term, Heller faced Nevada's 1st congressional district U.S. Representative Shelley Berkley in November 2012. Heller defeated Berkley, 45.9% to 44.7%.
2018
In August 2017, Las Vegas businessman Danny Tarkanian, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, announced that he would mount a primary challenge to Heller. Tarkanian stated that "we are never going to make America great again unless we have Senators in office that fully support President Trump and his America-First agenda" and explained that he wanted to "repeal Obamacare and end illegal immigration."In September 2017, NBC News reported that Heller was "widely considered the most endangered Senator up for reelection in next year's midterm cycle." He was described as facing "substantial opposition from both conservatives within his own party and a general electorate trending Democratic" and as having "a difficult relationship with President Donald Trump." At a fundraiser, Nevada Republicans were supportive of Trump but critical of Heller.
On February 1, 2018, President Trump told Republican National Committee members that he would travel to Nevada to campaign for Heller in a competitive Republican primary. In March 2018, Trump persuaded Tarkanian to drop his challenge to Heller. Tarkanian said that he would instead run for the United States House of Representatives in Nevada's 3rd congressional district with Trump's full support and the incumbent Democrat Jacky Rosen retiring to challenge Heller.
In the November 2018 general election, Heller was defeated by Democratic challenger Jacky Rosen. Rosen received 50% of the vote to Heller's 45%, with a variety of third party candidates receiving 5% of the total vote. While Heller carried 15 of Nevada's 17 county-level jurisdictions, Rosen carried the two largest, Clark and Washoe. Ultimately, Heller could not overcome a 92,000-vote deficit in Clark County.
Tenure
On May 23, 2013, Heller introduced into the U.S. Senate. The bill is an official companion measure to the Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act of 2013, introduced in the House by Nevada Representative Joe Heck. The bills would require the federal government to issue permits within 48 hours to volunteer search and rescue groups that would allow them to search federal lands. Heller argued that "the last thing families who have lost loved ones need is the federal government to stand in the way of recovering their remains."In 2013, Heller was one of 18 Senators who voted against the bill to reopen the government during the United States government shutdown of 2013. Regarding the vote, Heller said: "I wanted to be able to support a deal, but this proposal makes no underlying structural changes that will prevent this exact same crisis from happening again in the very near future. Considering this legislation does nothing to place our nation on sound fiscal footing or cultivate a growth economy that will produce jobs in the long term, I cannot support it."
Heller campaigned to be elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 114th U.S. Congress, but was defeated by Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker on November 13, 2014.
Committee assignments
Heller was a member of the following committees:- Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
- *Subcommittee on Economic Policy
- *Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development
- *Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection
- Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
- *Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
- *Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
- *Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security
- *Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security
- Committee on Finance
- *Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight
- *Subcommittee on Health Care
- *Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
- '''Committee on Veterans' Affairs'''
Political positions
During the Obama administration, there was a degree of friction between Heller and President Obama. In 2010, Heller criticized President Obama for using Las Vegas as a synonym for wasting money. Heller said: “Nevada has one of the most distressed economies in the country, and the President has done little to focus on job creation over the past year.” Heller's relationship with President Trump has undergone considerable evolution. During the 2016 campaign, Heller said Trump "denigrates human beings" and suggested that he wouldn't vote for him, although he later said that he did. In February 2018, the AP noted that Heller, who “had been publicly chided by President Donald Trump months earlier” was now “working closely with the White House.” A “steady rapprochement” had taken place “between the swing-state senator and loyalty-loving president,” stated the AP.
Abortion
Heller voted against federal funding for abortion. In 2017 he supported abortion access in cases of rape, incest, or life-endangering harm to the mother.Heller came under right-wing criticism in spring 2017, after he told a Reno audience that he had “no problem” funding Planned Parenthood.
In 2021, in launching his campaign for Governor, he shifted to much stronger opposition to abortion, saying, "As governor, I'll get the most conservative abortion laws that we can have in this state, regardless with who's controlling the Legislature at the time." He also said, "I like what Texas did," referring to the Texas Heartbeat Act, which prohibited abortion after about the sixth week of gestation. The law contains an exception for abortions carried out to save the mother's life. Although the law prohibits perpetrators of rape or incest from enforcing the law concerning fetuses they have conceived, it does not contain a carve-out allowing all abortions of fetuses conceived by rape or incest.