Lombardo’s campaign did not respond to email requests for comment. Since shifting his focus toward the afterlife, he has founded the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies and offered nearly $1 million in prizes last year for a contest that shows “the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death.”
The Pentagon said the program shut down in 2012, though Reid later said he had no regrets about the funding.īigelow said he considered Reid a good friend, though toward the end of Reid’s tenure in the Senate, they maintained that friendship by not talking politics. Much of the money went to Bigelow’s company to investigate and the allocation was not made public until a 2017 New York Times investigation. Harry Reid, a Democrat, to allocate $22 million to a secretive program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program, which investigated reports of UFOs from 2007 through 2012. He once convinced his friend and then-U.S. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said that UFOs are “under our noses” and wondered why news organizations have not extensively covered UFO sightings.īut Bigelow, a staunch Republican, said his interest in UFOs and the afterlife is not related to his current political donations.įor decades, Bigelow has invested millions in UFO research with money he has made from his hotel and real estate business. He lamented Sisolak’s statewide closure of nonessential businesses early in the pandemic, which he said sank his aerospace company.īigelow’s political and social influence in Nevada has long been pronounced, most notably in his UFO research that is now shifting toward afterlife research. He was also a vocal critic of the federal eviction moratorium, calling it “legalized theft” as some tenants didn’t pay rent, and he filed 46 eviction actions at the height of the pandemic. PACs are required to operate independently from candidates, meaning they can raise money for candidates but aren’t allowed to coordinate with the their campaigns.īigelow has made his wealth through his extended-stay apartment chain Budget Suites of America, which he has used to fund his UFO research. Steve Sisolak leads Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff, in cash-on-hand $10.78 million to $1.2 million, which includes direct contributions to their campaigns but does not account for donations to political action committees, which make up the bulk of Bigelow’s donations in support of Lombardo. As of the latest filings, Democratic Gov. The race has implications for inflation policy, reproductive rights and the Democrats’ hold on the Legislature.īigelow’s donations give a lifeline to a Republican challenger who is spending more and fundraising less than the Democratic incumbent.
Now Bigelow, 78, has become the largest donor this cycle in Nevada’s midterm gubernatorial race, donating $5.7 million through his companies to the campaign for Nevada GOP gubernatorial nominee Joe Lombardo and to political action committees supporting him. More recently, he offered nearly $1 million in prizes for a contest to show consciousness after death, part of his newer interest in the afterlife. (AP) - Robert Bigelow, a Las Vegas-based hotel magnate, has always had a cause.įor decades, he invested his hotel profits into UFO research, creating his own aerospace company while lobbying senators to fund additional research.
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