LAS VEGAS —
Every month, 793,939 people listen on Spotify to the music that Marty O’Donnell spent decades of his life composing. If a fraction of that number votes to send him to Congress in Nevada’s 3rd District in a few weeks, he will represent one of America’s top swing district.
O’Donnell spoke with the Washington Reporter at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) conference in Las Vegas, just a few blocks from where he is running for Congress against Rep. Susie Lee (D., Nev.). He explained that coming to the RJC was important for him because “the Republican Jewish Coalition is an incredibly important part of our party, and of our constituency.”
“I’m a huge supporter of Israel,” O’Donnell continued. “Every time Bibi Netanyahu speaks before Congress, I’m just blown away by his statesmanship, his knowledge. I’m a supporter of Israel. I’m a supporter of all my Jewish friends. Plus, I also agree with Ambassador Mike Huckabee. I feel like some of the things that are going on today in terms of anti-Semitism are part of a spiritual battle, and as a Christian, I know that my foundation is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, and this is why I am a supporter of Israel today.”
For O’Donnell, his support for Israel is grounded in his deep Christian faith. “Converting to Catholicism is really a return to the foundational principles of Christianity,” he explained. “I grew up as a Protestant. I still have tons of Protestant friends. I understand Martin Luther. There could have been a Lutheran branch of Catholicism if things had gone a little bit better back in the day; I feel like there’s really no difference between Christianity and the foundation that it’s based on. Israel is where the light of the world was prophesized to come into the world, and that’s what the Jewish tradition teaches us, and that’s what Christian tradition teaches us too.”
But, O’Donnell said that he is shocked and depressed at the resurgence of anti-Semitism in America, which he had thought for decades was a thing of the past.
“I actually did not see this coming,” he said. “I was born ten years after the end of World War II. I really thought that by defeating Hitler and learning about the Holocaust and what a horrible, horrible time this was for humanity, and for the human race, that anti-Semitism is something we don’t have to worry about anymore. Anti-Semitism is dead. It’s not going to come back. I guess it just went under the surface and it has been percolating there. To see it come back, especially on the left, but also you can see it on the far right, is a shock to me, but we have to fight it.”
O’Donnell took direct aim at the claim by some on the left that their opposition is to Zionism, and not to Jews as a whole. “People like to talk about Zionism, and their opposition to Zionism,” he said. But, “it is actually Jew hatred, and it is so virulent and horrible that I can hardly believe it.”
Even though President Donald Trump is not on the ballot himself in 2026, Las Vegas was responsible for one of the core campaign pledges he ran on, and that Republicans delivered on with the One Big, Beautiful Bill: no taxes on tips.
O’Donnell said that campaigning on no taxes on tips in Las Vegas of all places is “really fun.”
“When we go out and we are served by the servers that we have at any of these lunches, or I go out to dinner with my wife, every time I get to know who the server is, I’ll say, ‘no tax on tips,’ and they’re like, ‘yes, no tax on tips.’”
“It is affecting people’s lives,” he added. “Actual, real money has come back to people who work in my district. No tax on overtime for the workers, and also no tax on Social Security. In my district there are a lot of people who are retired, and no tax on Social Security means real dollars in people’s pockets. It’s made a difference in their lifestyles.”
In his race’s home stretch, he said that “the most important message is the reason I’m doing this [is that] I’m not a politician. You’ve heard people say that before, but I had no desire to have this as a career. I’m doing this for my three grandsons. My three grandsons were born right here in the district at Summerlin Hospital. I just was playing with them yesterday in the pool. I see what’s happened to this country.”
“I see what President Trump and the Republicans are doing, and what the future can be under the Republican leadership, and the Democrats are offering something that’s just horrible,” he added. “I don’t want my grandsons to grow up that way, so I’m going to do everything I can to fight it. I’m going to hold the line. I’m going to keep the faith, and I want to finish the fight.”
On the flip side, O’Donnell said that “Susie Lee is needs to go. She needs to retire. Her negatives are high. She’s an incumbent who is a rubber snap. She’s just a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. She has no ideas, and frankly, she’s one of those Democrats who is at the top of the list of Democrats who enrich themselves greatly by doing insider trading, which has to stop.”
“Even if she says she’s against insider trading now, it means nothing,” he added. “It’s closing the door after the horse has gone out. She’s already made her money. The idea that you make money being a career politician by insider trading in stocks is is evil. It’s criminal.”
While Lee herself is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), O’Donnell noted that the DSA’s rise across America is playing out in his race. “I think the the poison of Marxism has come into our country, through our educational system, through politics, through the media, and it’s manifesting itself as DSA — the Democratic Socialists of America,” he said. “If the Democrats cannot condemn the obvious poison that is now part of their party, and if we as Republicans can’t condemn whatever poison that has happened on the far right, we have the horseshoe theory. I see it coming together up there. Anti-Semitism is the first sign that Marxism and godless communism are sneaking their way into the public discourse that we have to fight against.”
When it comes to Lee specifically, O’Donnell said that her absence is what is most notable. “Susie Lee is nowhere when it comes to this,” he said. “She is a rubber stamp. She voted 90 percent of the time with Joe Biden. She has an opportunity now to differentiate herself from the DSA, and she will not do it. She said nothing against the Mayor of New York. She said nothing against the Jew hatred that’s coming from some of her colleagues in Congress. She said nothing about the Michigan race or the Wisconsin race or any of these other races where DSA in New York that has been so prevalent. She will not condemn, say, Hasan Piker, which is such an obvious thing to do.”
“If she’s truly a middle of the road Democrat, which she’s not, she would be vocal about these things, and she won’t be,” he added.
For years, O’Donnell has been known as a composer of everything from the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins jingle to the soundtrack of the Halo franchise. But in 2024, he made the decision to enter the political realm with an ultimately unsuccessful primary bid for Congress. But those lessons have helped animate his 2026 campaign.
“The interesting thing to me about politics is that I have not been a politician my whole life,” he said. “I have been someone who’s worked in entertainment, worked in TV commercials, film, television, and then of course, in video games. I have a lot of expertise in areas that are non-political. But what I learned in my first run, where I got in very late in the primary, was that I learned a lot about what politics was.”
“What I learned is that I definitely needed to make sure that we had national support in a tight race in order to get through the primary, so that we wouldn’t beat each other up,” the Trump-endorsed O’Donnell said. “Republicans beating each other up in primaries does not help in the general. This time around, by getting support from D.C., and by getting President Trump’s support before the primary meant that I could spend most of my time and money talking to the people in the district and working to make sure I’m going against one opponent, which is Susie Lee and the Democrats.”
But O’Donnell’s entry into politics hasn’t been without personal cost for him. During his current campaign, he was uninvited from the Sacramento Anime Convention, which was going to celebrate 25 years of the Halo franchise.
“I was looking forward to being there, and my actors were looking forward to me being there,” he recounted, before explaining why he was uninvited. “They promoted that I was going to be there, and I suddenly learned from the booker, who said to me that ‘we got this letter, and suddenly they have some some people who are volunteers that are uncomfortable with you being there.’ That’s how I heard.”
“That was the first time anything like that happened to me,” O’Donnell said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been to several of these conferences that have Halo actors. My Halo actors, the actors that I hired and directed 25 years ago, and then we had Halo Two and Three and ODST and Reach. I’ve always been treated spectacularly well at all the campuses. I love being there, signing autographs for the fans, talking to the fans. I’ve probably been to four or five of these so far. I don’t do all of them. There are so many now, but this was going to be a special one because four of my actors were going to be there at the Sacramento Anime Convention. To be clear, it’s not an official Halo convention. I’m not being rejected by Microsoft or Halo Studios — as of yet. I only say that because I just don’t know. It feels so strange to see something like this happen. I don’t know what could happen.”
“It was a shock to be yanked from something that should be just a celebration of 25 years of fun, playing games, sharing stories with the fans who appreciate the music, who appreciate the story that we wrote, and who appreciate the actors that I hired,” he added. “The nice thing is that I’ve spoken to all the actors over there, and they’re crushed by the whole thing. I don’t want them to be affected at all. I want them to be able to do what they do, and for them to be able to have a good time at this convention. I will see them at other things. We’ll be fine. Maybe it’s just a Sacramento thing, but it was pretty pretty depressing to me. I warned the people about it. I told them they should change their mind on this because I didn’t think it’s going to go well for them. I thought there was going to be a backlash, and there has been a really big backlash.”
O’Donnell, who is leaning heavily on his background as an award-winning composer in his campaign, decided to turn lemons into lemonade.
“If I can’t go to one of these conventions, I’m going to have one of them myself right here in Las Vegas,” he beamed. “On October 9 and on October 10, we’re going to have a Halo LAN party. It’s going to be old-fashioned fun, probably Doritos and comfy couches, four-player split screens, 16-player big team battles, Halo One, Halo Two, original boxes. For those who know, this is going to be a blast.”
For O’Donnell, hosting a LAN party as a congressional candidate harkens back to when he hosted a Halo LAN party 25 years ago.
“This is actually something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and now that it’s been 25 years, it’s time,” he explained. “I did one of the very first Halo LAN parties after we shipped Halo One in 2001, probably around Christmas time. I had a LAN party at my house, and we got the thing that we never thought would happen, which is having people bring TVs to your house, bring their Xboxes, bring LAN cables. We had some upstairs, some downstairs, but all four Xboxes were connected, and we had 16 players at a time. It was so much fun. I took home video of it. You could see the home video on my site. I think we tweeted it out. It’s on my YouTube channel. But the idea that 25 years has gone by, and people still fondly remember what it’s like to play with their friends, have a good time.”
“There was never any political context to any of this stuff. It’s just people who are friends, who are family, who get together and have a good time,” O’Donnell said. “We can do that again.”
Below is a transcript of our interview with Marty O’Donnell, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Marty, we are blocks away from the district where you’re running for Congress. We’re here at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference. Why was it important for you to carve time out of the campaign trail to be here?
Marty O’Donnell:
The Republican Jewish Coalition is an incredibly important part of our party, and of our constituency. Here’s the thing: I’m a huge supporter of Israel. Every time Bibi Netanyahu speaks before Congress, I’m just blown away by his statesmanship, his knowledge. I’m a supporter of Israel. I’m a supporter of all my Jewish friends. Plus, I also agree with Ambassador Mike Huckabee. I feel like some of the things that are going on today in terms of anti-Semitism are part of a spiritual battle, and as a Christian, I know that my foundation is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, and this is why I am a supporter of Israel today.
Washington Reporter:
You converted to Catholicism recently. How does that factor into what you were just explaining about these beliefs of yours?
Marty O’Donnell:
Converting to Catholicism is really a return to the foundational principles of Christianity. I grew up as a Protestant. I still have tons of Protestant friends. I understand Martin Luther. There could have been a Lutheran branch of Catholicism if things had gone a little bit better back in the day; I feel like there’s really no difference between Christianity and the foundation that it’s based on. Israel is where the light of the world was prophesized to come into the world, and that’s what the Jewish tradition teaches us, and that’s what Christian tradition teaches us too.
Marty O’Donnell:
Let’s look across the aisle. How has the DSA surge that we’ve been seeing from Democrats across the country been playing out in Nevada? Is it impacting your congressional race at all?
Washington Reporter:
Yes, it’s impacting my race. I think the the poison of Marxism has come into our country, through our educational system, through politics, through the media, and it’s manifesting itself as DSA — the Democratic Socialists of America. If the Democrats cannot condemn the obvious poison that is now part of their party, and if we as Republicans can’t condemn whatever poison that has happened on the far right, we have the horseshoe theory. I see it coming together up there. Anti-Semitism is the first sign that Marxism and godless communism are sneaking their way into the public discourse that we have to fight against.
Washington Reporter:
Where has Susie Lee been throughout all of this?
Marty O’Donnell:
Susie Lee is nowhere when it comes to this. She is a rubber stamp. She voted 90 percent of the time with Joe Biden. She has an opportunity now to differentiate herself from the DSA, and she will not do it. She said nothing against the Mayor of New York. She said nothing against the Jew hatred that’s coming from some of her colleagues in Congress. She said nothing about the Michigan race or the Wisconsin race or any of these other races where DSA in New York that has been so prevalent. She will not condemn, say, Hasan Piker, which is such an obvious thing to do. And if she’s truly a middle of the road Democrat, which she’s not, she would be vocal about these things, and she won’t be.
Washington Reporter:
You spent most of your career not involved in politics. You’ve run for Congress before. What lessons did you take from that race that you’re bringing here to get over the finish line in November?
Marty O’Donnell:
The interesting thing to me about politics is that I have not been a politician my whole life. I have been someone who’s worked in entertainment, worked in TV commercials, film, television, and then of course, in video games. I have a lot of expertise in areas that are non-political. But what I learned in my first run, where I got in very late in the primary, was that I learned a lot about what politics was. And what I learned is that I definitely needed to make sure that we had national support in a tight race in order to get through the primary, so that we wouldn’t beat each other up. Republicans beating each other up in primaries does not help in the general. This time around, by getting support from D.C., and by getting President Trump’s support before the primary meant that I could spend most of my time and money talking to the people in the district and working to make sure I’m going against one opponent, which is Susie Lee and the Democrats.
Washington Reporter:
What’s going on within entertainment recently? We’ve seen Mark Ruffalo condemn Israel in these baseless terms of genocide; how have you seen the entertainment industry evolve since you got involved in this space several decades ago?
Marty O’Donnell:
This is actually the most depressing thing to me. I actually did not see this coming. I was born ten years after the end of World War II. I really thought that by defeating Hitler and learning about the Holocaust and what a horrible, horrible time this was for humanity, and for the human race, that anti-Semitism is something we don’t have to worry about anymore. Anti-Semitism is dead. It’s not going to come back. I guess it just went under the surface and it has been percolating there. To see it come back, especially on the left, but also you can see it on the far right, is a shock to me, but we have to fight it. People like to talk about Zionism, and their opposition to Zionism. It is actually Jew hatred, and it is so virulent and horrible that I can hardly believe it. I don’t know how this relates to my race specifically, but it is very important.
Washington Reporter:
I want to get to your experience with your Sacramento conference. How did you find out that all of a sudden you were yanked from what was in essence Halo Con? Was that the first time something like that has happened to you?
Marty O’Donnell:
Absolutely; that was the first time anything like that happened to me. As a matter of fact, I’ve been to several of these conferences that have Halo actors. My Halo actors, the actors that I hired and directed 25 years ago, and then we had Halo Two and Three and ODST and Reach. I’ve always been treated spectacularly well at all the campuses. I love being there, signing autographs for the fans, talking to the fans. I’ve probably been to four or five of these so far. I don’t do all of them. There are so many now, but this was going to be a special one because four of my actors were going to be there at the Sacramento Anime Convention. To be clear, it’s not an official Halo convention. I’m not being rejected by Microsoft or Halo Studios — as of yet. I only say that because I just don’t know. It feels so strange to see something like this happen. I don’t know what could happen. I was looking forward to being there, and my actors were looking forward to me being there. They promoted that I was going to be there, and I suddenly learned from the booker, who said to me that ‘we got this letter, and suddenly they have some some people who are volunteers that are uncomfortable with you being there.’ That’s how I heard.
Washington Reporter:
When I saw that happen, I was thinking about J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter actors whose careers she made disavowing her; that’s not exactly the same, because the actors you found were not the ones doing this, but what was that like for you, having spent years of your life being so closely associated with this video game franchise, to have received that notification that you’re getting yanked?
Marty O’Donnell:
It was a shock to be yanked from something that should be just a celebration of 25 years of fun, playing games, sharing stories with the fans who appreciate the music, who appreciate the story that we wrote, and who appreciate the actors that I hired. The nice thing is that I’ve spoken to all the actors over there, and they’re crushed by the whole thing. I don’t want them to be affected at all. I want them to be able to do what they do, and for them to be able to have a good time at this convention. I will see them at other things. We’ll be fine. Maybe it’s just a Sacramento thing, but it was pretty pretty depressing to me. I warned the people about it. I told them they should change their mind on this because I didn’t think it’s going to go well for them. I thought there was going to be a backlash, and there has been a really big backlash.
Washington Reporter:
On the flip side, you released an ad in your campaign playing the piano, talking about how Congress is out of sync. How have you been able to harness the fans that you’ve cultivated throughout the years to win in November?
Marty O’Donnell:
This is a good question. If I can’t go to one of these conventions, I’m going to have one of them myself right here in Las Vegas. On October 9 and on October 10, we’re going to have a Halo LAN party. It’s going to be old-fashioned fun, probably Doritos and comfy couches, four-player split screens, 16-player big team battles, Halo One, Halo Two, original boxes. For those who know, this is going to be a blast.
Washington Reporter:
For those of us who aren’t as cool as you are, what does that mean? And is this evoking for you a nostalgia when you got into this space?
Marty O’Donnell:
This is actually something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and now that it’s been 25 years, it’s time. I did one of the very first Halo LAN parties after we shipped Halo One in 2001, probably around Christmas time. I had a LAN party at my house, and we got the thing that we never thought would happen, which is having people bring TVs to your house, bring their Xboxes, bring LAN cables. We had some upstairs, some downstairs, but all four Xboxes were connected, and we had 16 players at a time. It was so much fun. I took home video of it. You could see the home video on my site. I think we tweeted it out. It’s on my YouTube channel. But the idea that 25 years has gone by, and people still fondly remember what it’s like to play with their friends, have a good time. There was never any political context to any of this stuff. It’s just people who are friends, who are family, who get together and have a good time. We can do that again.
Washington Reporter:
I really want to home in on the no tax on tips pledge that President Trump and Republicans made, and that they delivered on in the One Big Beautiful Bill that Susie Lee obviously voted against. The lore of it is that it started here in Las Vegas when a waitress came up to Trump and said ‘it’d be nice if my tips weren’t taxed.’ How has that been affecting the economy here?
Marty O’Donnell:
It’s really fun when we go out and we are served by the servers that we have at any of these lunches, or I go out to dinner with my wife, every time I get to know who the server is, I’ll say, ‘no tax on tips,’ and they’re like, ‘yes, no tax on tips.’ It is affecting people’s lives. Actual, real money has come back to people who work in my district. No tax on overtime for the workers, and also no tax on Social Security. In my district there are a lot of people who are retired, and no tax on Social Security means real dollars in people’s pockets. It’s made a difference in their lifestyles.
Washington Reporter:
We’re entering the home stretch of this election. If there’s one thing for everyone in Nevada’s 3rd District to know about you, and one thing for them to know about Susie Lee, what’s the most important message?
Marty O’Donnell:
Wow, that’s a good question. The most important message is the reason I’m doing this. I’m not a politician. You’ve heard people say that before, but I had no desire to have this as a career. I’m doing this for my three grandsons. My three grandsons were born right here in the district at Summerlin Hospital. I just was playing with them yesterday in the pool. I see what’s happened to this country. I see what President Trump and the Republicans are doing, and what the future can be under the Republican leadership, and the Democrats are offering something that’s just horrible. I don’t want my grandsons to grow up that way, so I’m going to do everything I can to fight it. I’m going to hold the line. I’m going to keep the faith, and I want to finish the fight.
Washington Reporter:
And what about for Susie Lee? What are you telling voters between now and Election Day?
Marty O’Donnell:
Susie Lee is needs to go. She needs to retire. Her negatives are high. She’s an incumbent who is a rubber snap. She’s just a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. She has no ideas, and frankly, she’s one of those Democrats who is at the top of the list of Democrats who enrich themselves greatly by doing insider trading, which has to stop. Even if she says she’s against insider trading now, it means nothing. It’s closing the door after the horse has gone out. She’s already made her money. The idea that you make money being a career politician by insider trading in stocks is is evil. It’s criminal.
