Dennis Hof, a legal pimp and reality TV star, won a Republican primary on Tuesday for Nevada’s state legislature.
The Art of the Pimp author garnered nearly 43 percent of the votes, overcoming incumbent James Oscarson to secure the Republican nomination for Nevada State Assembly District 36, where he owns several legal brothels.
Hof is the star of HBO’s adult reality series “Cathouse,” which documents the lives of sex workers employed at his high-profile brothel Moonlite BunnyRanch, located in Carson City, Nevada. He also owns the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada, where NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious during a four-day visit in October 2015.
“It’s all because Donald Trump was the Christopher Columbus for me,” Hof told The Associated Press about his Tuesday victory. “He found the way and I jumped on it.”
Hof, 71, has billed himself as the “Trump from Pahrump,” according to the Los Angeles Times. After losing to Oscarson in 2016 while running as a Libertarian, Hof announced his switch to the Republican Party a month after Trump won the presidential election.
“We’re both famous — and infamous,” Hof told the Times in March. “We’re both high-profile. We’re both celebrities. We’re both successful businessmen. We both have reality television shows. We both have written books. We’re both rich and we can’t be bought.”
Nevada voters will decide on Nov. 6 whether Hof or Democrat Lesia Romanov will pick up the state assembly seat for the traditionally Republican-leaning district. They will also vote on shutting down brothels in Lyon County, where Hof owns four of them, the AP reported. If activists get enough signatures by Friday, several other counties could have the question on their ballots in November as well.