LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Cody Whipple said his campaign for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District centers on providing a consolidated voice in Washington for the region’s diverse communities.
Whipple, a 52-year-old fourth-generation Nevadan, cattle rancher and small business owner, said he has the experience to represent the district.
“Being a fourth-generation Nevadan, 52 years, cattle rancher in the rural area and a small business owner in the urban area, I’ve got those assets, learned assets that it takes to take our voice out to D.C.,” Whipple said.
He played football at Virginia Tech in the 1990s under Coach Beamer and owns a wireless communications network covering Southern Utah, Southern Nevada, Northern Arizona and California.
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Regional infrastructure and communications
Whipple said the region needs a master plan to sustain growth over the next 50 years. He said building highways, including Interstate 11 and U.S. 93, is critical, along with passing lanes, rest stops, broadband and cellular communications.
“Everybody leaves Las Vegas, and they feel like they’ve left the planet because it’s very difficult to communicate,” Whipple said.
He said highways are two-lane roads with head-on collisions weekly or monthly that shut everything down with no alternate route. Whipple said he wants to see an alternate road to Interstate 15.
He said he hopes to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee to push infrastructure and communications throughout Nevada.
Border security and election integrity
Whipple said his top issues are securing elections and building the border.
“Our vote is our voice,” he said. “We need to make sure that every legal vote is counted. It should be easy to vote, but impossible to cheat.”
On the border, Whipple said the barrier is not enough because cartels are flying drones over the top and cutting holes. He said the Big Beautiful Bill provided $45 billion to continue building the border wall.
As a cattle rancher, Whipple said not leaving a gate open is critical and fences make good neighbors. He said border officers are the eyes and ears seeing drones flying drugs and illegal computer chips from China.
Water networks and agriculture
Whipple said he is the candidate who owns water and land and understands basin hydrology. He said Southern Nevada Water Authority and federal elected officials have missed their opportunity to address the emergency.
“We are in an emergency, emergency,” he said.
Whipple said he would build water networks by taking farmers along the Colorado River and moving them inland to basins that have water to grow vegetables.
“Take that water, leave it in the lakes, continue to fill the lakes up because we’re taking that water and actually drawing water out of different valleys,” he said.
He said buying alfalfa from the Mojave tribe and leaving water in the lake is another option. Whipple said he has shut off wells at his cattle ranch because energy costs make it too expensive to produce crops.
Whipple said he met with congressmen from Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Arizona during the National Finals Rodeo to discuss the emergency. He said he would like to move agriculture off the river into valleys in Arizona, Utah and Nevada immediately.
On a pipeline from other states, Whipple said no. He said desalination from California and arrangements with Wyoming to put more water into the Colorado River are possible options.
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