Nevada's 2nd Congressional District has long been considered reliably Republican territory, but for the first time in its history, the seat now appears to be genuinely in play.

The sprawling district covers the entire northern half of the state, taking in Carson City, Reno, Sparks, and Nevada's rural expanses. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) announced in February that he would retire after 15 years in Congress. Under ordinary circumstances, handing the seat to another Republican would have been routine; Democrats have never won the seat since the district was created. Instead, Amodei says the race is competitive for the first time — a development he attributes directly to the scandals surrounding the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate vying to replace him.

"This seat is some kind of competitive like it has never been in the history since it was created," Amodei said in remarks to KPBS. "And you know what I attribute that to? I attribute it to the candidate and the way he's run his campaign."

That candidate is Republican David Flippo, who appears on campaign signs in his military uniform wearing two Bronze Stars that his campaign falsely claimed were awarded "for valor." He now also faces accusations that he relocated to the district from Las Vegas for the sole purpose of running.

Flippo had originally been set to run for Congress in the Las Vegas district. After Amodei announced his retirement, Flippo moved north to pursue the reliably red seat. Carrying the coveted Trump endorsement, he won the Republican primary.

"This is a strong conservative district," Flippo told NPR. "I was talking with the people that have endorsed me such as Turning Point and other organizations that are on the conservative side. belief was that this being a conservative district we should get somebody that is more conservative in this seat."

The GOP now appears to be starting to panic, pouring "more than $1 million in TV and digital advertising reservations, according to AdImpact data," the report cited. AdImpact tracks political advertising spending, and reservations of that size are usually the kind national parties make in races they regard as genuinely contested.

Veteran political journalist Jon Ralston, editor of The Nevada Independent, quipped, "They must have gotten a poll and had a five-alarm fire at headquarters and said we have to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into that district to save this guy."

Just two years ago, Trump won the district by 14 points. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has added the race to its "red to blue" program, which provides fundraising and organizational support to Democratic candidates contesting Republican-held districts — a signal that Democrats believe they can win. House control is decided seat by seat, which is why both national parties channel resources into districts that unexpectedly become competitive; this one will be settled when Nevada voters cast their ballots in November.

The Democratic nominee, Teresa Benitez-Thompson, has lived in the district since early childhood, has represented it in the state legislature, and is a former Miss Nevada.

The carpetbagger allegations — a term long used for candidates accused of moving into a district primarily to run for office there — are only the latest scandal confronting the scandal-plagued Republican.

The Washington Post first reported the incidents in which Flippo's campaign made the valor claim, only for it to prove false. Even a video from an earlier congressional race celebrated Flippo as "a recipient of the Bronze Star that he received for Valor." He never won the medal with the "V" for valor, which represents bravery in battle. Veterans notice such false claims — known as "stolen valor" — and feel strongly about them.

Flippo has tried to blame his staff, claiming he never noticed the false information in his campaign videos, on his website, or in other campaign materials. At a press conference, he said a staffer mistook the "V" for valor when it was actually an award his whole unit received. Flippo told NPR at the time that everything had been "edited and convoluted" and that he "missed it." Yet the claim somehow made its way back into his campaign materials.

A photo on his own campaign website shows Flippo wearing two bronze "V" pins. He has also regularly worn a baseball cap bearing the "V" next to a Bronze Star at campaign events, despite openly admitting he did not earn the medal.

When asked to clarify, he first tried to blame his grandchildren. Then, in a convoluted statement, he confessed he had asked them to put it on his hat.

"You know if you've lived with grandkids, and you know, you kind of know, when you ask them to put those things on your hat," Flippo said, before offering further evidence. "Actually, answer me this. I do have another hat that's just like it, because you misplace one or whatever, and that does not have any V devices on it, so and I was like 'where did that other V device go?' So, the grandkids ended up doing that."