Danny Tarkanian

After earning his bachelor's degree at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Tarkanian went on to complete his law degree at the University of San Diego. He practiced law for seven years and founded the Tarkanian Basketball Academy, a nonprofit organization focused on working with at-risk youth.[1]

Danny Tarkanian did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Danny Tarkanian did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Tarkanian's campaign website stated the following:

Veterans

I believe the men and women serving in our military, as well as their families, should receive the pay, health care, retirement benefits, housing and education that they deserve.

I support extending hiring preferences for veterans in federal employment.

I support President Trump’s efforts to fix the Veterans Administration and terminate employees who fail to properly provide for the needs of those who have sacrificed so much for our nation.

I support allowing veterans to choose alternative medical care from other than VA facilities if they so choose.

I believe we need to do more to address the problem of homeless veterans.

I support efforts to address the tragedy of 22 military veterans committing suicide every day in America, as well as programs to address problems such addiction and mental illness due to their service.

National Defense

Providing for our national defense is one of the few authorized responsibilities of the federal government. Indeed, as former Congressman Jim Talent wrote, “National defense is the only mandatory function of the national government” as outlined in Article 4, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.

As such, I am fully committed to rebuilding our military, which was severely weakened during the eight years of the Obama administration. As President Reagan put it, we must always be prepared so that we’ll always be free.

In addition…

I believe Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ loosening of the “rules of engagement,” which has allowed our troops to more quickly and effectively combat and defeat ISIS and other terrorists groups in the Middle East and elsewhere, is wise and correct.

I believe we should not be using our military for “nation building” purposes.

I believe our allies, who enjoy the protections we provide them, should help pay for that protection as agreed and appropriate.

I believe that appeasement efforts towards the brutal North Korean dictatorship have failed and a stronger U.S. strategy in dealing with them is both necessary and appropriate.

I believe we should never underestimate the dangers posed by Russia, but agree with President Trump that if we can find peaceful means to co-exist, it’s in both nations’ best interest to do so.

I believe border security and national security go hand-in-hand and support building the wall on our southern border, as well as President Trump’s limited travel ban and ending the visa lottery program.

I oppose calls to reinstate the draft, as well as oppose requiring women to register for the draft.

I oppose using our military for social experimentation.

Pro-Life

Danny Tarkanian Believes Life Starts At Conception.

Danny is pro-life.

He is dedicated to fighting for the unborn and standing up for life.

He is against federal funding of abortions.

He is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood.

School Choice

In the 1950s the government stood in front of schoolhouse doors and refused to let minority children in. Today the government stands in front of schoolhouse doors and refuses to let minority children out. That must change.

I am amazed at the hypocrisy of liberals who command a woman’s “right to choose” when it comes to terminating a pregnancy but denies women the right to choose what school to send their children to.

Parents deserve REAL school choice. They should be allowed to pick their child’s teachers and schools just as they’re allowed to choose their child’s doctors and hospitals. And no, choosing between one government school or another isn’t a real “choice.”

While we have an obligation to continue finding ways to improve our public schools other than dumping more and more taxpayer dollars down the drain, we must also give poor and middle class families the financial assistance they need to exercise the same education choices wealthy families enjoy.

Our public schools aren’t broke. They’re broken. If money was the answer, we’d already have the greatest school systems on the planet. We don’t.

That’s why I support school vouchers, education savings accounts and scholarship programs that parents can use for private school tuition or to assist parents who opt to homeschool their children if they want such assistance.

The community interest is a well-educated child. But that doesn’t necessarily mean public schools. One size doesn’t fit all. And it’s time to give parents both the right and the means to escape public schools that aren’t getting the job done.

Term Limits

Members of Congress are treated like royalty, have staffers who worship at their feet, are regularly entertained at dinners and cocktail parties, are lavished with ego-boosting praise and gifts by lobbyists sucking up for their votes, and made to feel their opinions are on par with the mountaintop wisdom of the Dalai Lama by the DC press corps.

Outside the beltway, Americans have another name for this alternative universe: The Swamp. And the only way to drain it and keep it drained is with term limits – just like we have for presidents; just like we have for Nevada legislators.

However, these elected Swamp creatures will do everything in their power to block a constitutional term limits amendment. But that doesn’t stop true citizen legislators who wish to serve and return home, as our Founders intended, from imposing term limits on themselves.

And that’s exactly my commitment to Nevadans…

If elected, I promise to actively support a Constitutional amendment providing for term limits on Member of the United States House and Senate.

Because it’s the right thing to do. For America. And for Nevada.

Repealing Obamacare

Nevadans all across our state have lost the health insurance policies they were told they could keep when ObamaCare was forced on us by President Obama and Sen. Harry Reid.

And many have lost their family doctors, as well. Not only because you were forced into new policies that didn’t include your doctors (for example, being forced from a PPO into an HMO), but because many doctors have simply closed up their practices because they could no longer afford to operate under the new program.

In addition, many Nevadans have not only seen their monthly premiums skyrocket higher than their rent and mortgage payments, but their deductibles have blown through the roof, as well. My family of six has seen our premiums increase almost 400%, our deductibles increased 500%, and our copay to see a specialist has increased 600%. Under Obamacare, hardworking middle class Americans who pay for their own health insurance are the ones getting screwed.

ObamaCare MUST be repealed. And here’s my commitment to you, in writing…

If you give me your trust by sending me to Congress, I will push for and vote to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety. Guaranteed. That’s right, guaranteed.

My Dad, like yours, taught me that a man’s word is his bond. And we teach our kids that if you make a promise, keep the promise. I will keep my promise.

Defending the Second Amendment

Gun-grabbers whose ultimate goal is to abolish the Second Amendment routinely ignore two important realities…

1. The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, and…

2. When seconds count, first responders are only minutes away

This is not a criticism of police officers. They put their lives on the line every single day to protect us. But they simply can’t be everywhere all the time…unless you’re a high elected official or a Hollywood star who can afford personal bodyguards.

For the rest of us, when confronted by a bad guy with a gun – in church, at an event, on the street or in our own homes – first responders can get there too late. We need, deserve and have a right to an IMMEDIATE response.

Indeed, the right to defend yourself and your family isn’t just your constitutional right; it’s a God-given right. A right that has nothing to do with hunting or target-shooting. It’s about self-defense, period.

And every time I hear a gun-grabber ask, “Why do you need a weapon like that?” – the simple answer is: To defend myself and my family against a bad guy who has a similar weapon.

The simple fact is, no gun control law or background check system in the world is going to stop criminals and crazy people from getting their hands on guns if they are truly intent on doing so. That’s why the Second Amendment individual right to keep and bear arms needs to be defended without compromise.

And that’s why my top gun rights priority in the House of Representatives will be the passage of a national concealed carry reciprocity law that will allow you to protect yourself and your loved ones while traveling from one state to another.

We can do better. We should do better. We MUST do better.

Philosophy of Government

My views on the proper role of government can pretty much be summed up in two guiding principles best expressed by Ronald Reagan…

Government isn’t the solution to the problem; government IS the problem

The American people aren’t taxed too little; the government spends too much

Keeping those two principles in mind, if elected to the House of Representatives I will try to follow the example set by former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, who wrote almost 60 years ago in Conscience of a Conservative…

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden.

I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ ‘interests,’ I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

Or as Benjamin Franklin once put it, “Where liberty is, there is my country.”

Government Spending

On January 20, 1981 Ronald Reagan delivered his first Inaugural Address. In it he warned…

"For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. . . . We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow."

That was the same speech in which the President famously declared that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

In a later speech, President Reagan observed:

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much."

And in yet another speech the Gipper noted:

"We don’t have a trillion dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough. We have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much."

Sadly, little has changed since Reagan left the White House. We’re still mortgaging our nation’s future on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Government is still the problem, not the solution. And the government still spends too much.

Sadder still, that trillion dollar debt President Reagan inherited in 1981 grew to $20 trillion under President Obama. To paraphrase another famous saying, “It’s the spending, stupid.” And that includes spending on so-called “entitlements.”

Fixing this problem will require elected representatives who are willing to make tough but responsible decisions regardless of political consequences.

Illegal Immigration

The most dishonest argument in the immigration reform debate is the habit of “open borders” advocates to mix legal immigration with ILLEGAL immigration. There’s a huge difference.

We do need some reforms to our legal immigration system, but we need to BLOCK illegal immigration.

We also need to deport illegal immigrants who commit additional illegal acts while in our country illegally IMMEDIATELY.

There’s already a legal pathway to citizenship. People who are in our country illegally who wish to become American citizens should return to their native country and get in line like everyone else. It is wrong, unfair and counter-productive to “devise” any other pathway.

In addition…

I support building “the wall”

I oppose birthright citizenship

I oppose “chain immigration”

I support e-Verify

I oppose sanctuary cities

I oppose driver’s licenses for illegal aliens

I oppose welfare benefits for illegal aliens

I support making English our official language[19]

The following issues were listed on Tarkanian's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

Restore America's Greatness and Secure America's Borders: America can be a great, diverse, welcoming nation, but first America must defend our borders to ensure our national security and protect our Constitutional rule of law. To do this, I am firmly in support of building a strong wall on our southern border and instituting vigorous new vetting of all immigrants.

End Crony Capitalism: It’s time to take America’s economy back from the political class, by voting to end corporate welfare and the crony capitalist system whereby corporations, lobbyists, bureaucrats and politicians enrich themselves at your expense.

All Lives Matter: I will be a steadfast defender of the Second Amendment and protect the people’s individual right to self-defense. For every person, I will defend the sanctity of their life, the preservation of their liberties and the opportunity to pursue their happiness. I will defend these inalienable rights because each of us is a child of God, created equally by Him. All Lives Matter.

Repeal Obamacare: After this election, the future of Obamacare will be put to the Congress once more with an opportunity to give control over health care decisions back to all Americans. As your Congressman, I will vote to end Obamacare, and to replace it with a market-based health care system that offers Americans choice and savings in health care.

No Common Core: Education should be a local issue, where parents can hold local school boards accountable – not federal education bureaucrats. In 2015, Nevada’s Legislative Commission led by Michael Roberson voted 11-1 to implement Common Core math standards in Nevada schools – giving parents less say and effectively putting the Department of Education in charge of Nevada classrooms.

[20]

—Danny Tarkanian's campaign website, http://tarkforcongress.com/issues/