A $4,062 payment from Nevada state treasurer candidate Drew Johnson’s campaign to Johnson himself has raised questions about campaign finance reporting after the expenditure was labeled as “staff expenses” while a loan he made to the campaign for the same amount remained listed as unpaid in disclosure filings.
Johnson is facing Jeff Carter in the Republican primary on June 9.
A review of Nevada campaign finance filings shows that Johnson reported a $4,062.56 loan to his campaign in his 2025 annual report filed with the Nevada Secretary of State on Jan. 15.
The filing describes the amount as in-kind expenses personally covered by Johnson and marked it as a loan to the campaign, meaning the campaign would owe him reimbursement. The report lists Johnson’s address as 5325 S. Fort Apache Road in Las Vegas, which is also the campaign’s mailing address located within a shipping store.
Subsequent campaign filings show that on Jan. 13, the campaign made a payment of $4,062.56 to “Jason Johnson” under Category E, labeled as a staff expense. The payment was sent to the same Fort Apache Road mailbox used by the campaign.
Public records indicate that Drew Johnson’s legal name is Jason Andrew Johnson. The January 2026 expenditure matches the exact amount of the previously reported loan, but the payment was not categorized as a loan repayment.
The expenditure accounted for more than half of the $7,357.42 Johnson’s campaign raised during the quarter.
Under Nevada campaign finance rules, loan repayments are typically reported separately under categories designated for repayment or forgiveness of loans. Under Nevada’s “Chapter 294A – Campaign Practices” law the required “categorization of expenditures and expenses in reports” specifically notes “repayments or forgiveness of loans” must be properly reported.
However, in this case, the filing reflects the payment as a staff expense, and the original loan continues to appear listed as outstanding in the reported records reviewed, with no clear entry showing formal repayment of the loan.
A separate Secretary of State expenditure record confirms a single $4,062.56 payment made by Johnson to “Jason Johnson” on Jan. 13, recorded in the 2026 reporting period and tied to the same campaign address.
The sequence of filings raises questions about how the payment was classified, whether it represents reimbursement for the original loan, compensation for campaign work, or another form of expense and why the outstanding loan remains reflected in disclosure records.
Johnson, 46, is originally from Tennessee and now lives in Las Vegas. He previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2024 and for Clark County Commission in 2022, and has built his campaign around government accountability and fiscal oversight, drawing on his background as a policy analyst and government spending commentator.
In Tennessee, he founded the free-market, non-profit think tank Beacon Center of Tennessee, formerly known as the Tennessee Center for Public Policy Research. He also formerly served as commissioner on the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth and worked as opinion editor for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
He holds a master’s degree in public policy and currently serves as a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, contributes commentary to Newsmax, and operates a small business.
