LEFT HOOK: Benitez-Thompson Lands Indivisible Backing as Progressive Group Pushes ICE Cuts, Health Care for Illegal Immigrants

Nevada Democrat congressional candidate Teresa Benitez-Thompson has picked up support from Indivisible activists as the national progressive network eyes Nevada’s historically Republican 2nd Congressional District as a potential 2026 target.

Indivisible Carson City recommends Benitez-Thompson in the NV-02 race, according to Blue Voter Guide, while Nevada organizers are asking national Indivisible leadership to designate the district as a target race, according to an endorsement release. Indivisible describes its national mission as defeating President Donald Trump’s agenda, electing progressive leaders and advancing “bold progressive policies.”

Those policies travel considerably farther left than the carefully sanded-down “Nevada values” rhetoric Democrats traditionally deploy when campaigning outside Las Vegas.

On transgender medical treatment for minors, national Indivisible blasted the Supreme Court last year for upholding Tennessee restrictions on gender-transition treatment for children. The organization declared that “healthcare is a human right” and explicitly included “gender-affirming medical care for trans youth,” pledging to continue fighting restrictions adopted by Republican-led states.

Then there is immigration, where the mask comes off entirely.

Indivisible’s official activist training guide instructs supporters to pressure politicians on cutting funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, calling both “rogue agencies.” Its suggested questions ask candidates how they would reduce funding for ICE and CBP and, in one formulation, how they would “reign in or eliminate” the agencies. The same document complains that traditional immigration reform gives too much money to border enforcement.

The group also wants Democrats pressed on whether their health care plans guarantee coverage for undocumented immigrants. Its guidance specifically tells activists to ask candidates, “How does your health care plan include a guarantee of coverage for undocumented immigrants?”

Apparently the border is optional, but the taxpayer-funded benefits package is not.

Indivisible’s election agenda is equally revealing. The organization calls voter identification requirements a form of “voter suppression,” says voter ID laws address a problem that “doesn’t exist,” and has published organizing materials teaching activists how to fight them. Its broader election guidance also encourages candidates to consider restoring voting rights to incarcerated people and lowering the voting age.

Endorsements are political choices, and the increasingly aggressive effort by progressive activists to make NV-02 a national target gives Northern Nevada voters a clearer look at the coalition trying to put her in Congress.

Benitez-Thompson, a former Nevada Assembly majority leader and former chief of staff to Democrat Attorney General Aaron Ford, has already campaigned heavily on fighting Trump and rebuilding federal social programs. She has also broken with prominent Nevada Democrats from the left on Israel, telling The Nevada Independent she would have supported resolutions limiting aid that Nevada’s senators opposed.

The gamble is audacious because NV-02 is not Berkeley with sagebrush.

No Democrat has ever represented the district since its creation more than four decades ago. Trump carried it with 55.8 percent in 2024, nearly 14 points ahead of Kamala Harris. Still, after Republican Mark Amodei’s retirement, Inside Elections recently shifted the open-seat contest from Solid Republican to Likely Republican, giving national left-wing groups an excuse to smell blood.

Indivisible wants to turn Northern Nevada into its next progressive battlefield. Benitez-Thompson just received the cavalry.

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