About Manny.
Husband. Father. Neighbor.
Manny Kess is an entrepreneur, investor, and community leader with more than two decades of experience building and leading businesses in highly regulated, competitive environments.
Manny grew up in New York and spent his early years at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he built a strong work ethic and a deep respect for service and accountability. While attending the Academy, he lost his father, an experience that profoundly shaped how he approaches leadership, responsibility, and resilience.
Like many families and small business owners, Manny faced serious financial setbacks during the Great Recession. He rebuilt from the ground up and chose Nevada as his home 14 years ago. Starting with limited resources, he built The Kess Group into a respected hospitality organization, working with athletes, entertainers, business leaders, and local families.
Manny has built and operated businesses across restaurants, real estate, travel, and consumer ventures. These experiences gave him firsthand insight into budgeting, regulation, land use, and long-term planning. Throughout his career, he has focused on creating jobs, supporting families, and reinvesting in Southern Nevada.
Manny speaks openly about the lessons he learned along the way. Each challenge sharpened his judgment and reinforced the importance of transparency, preparation, and steady decision making, qualities he believes public service demands.
Above all, Manny is a father. His daughter drives his commitment to safer neighborhoods, responsible leadership, and long-term opportunity for the next generation.
Manny is running for Clark County Commission, District E, because he believes county government works best when leaders make transparent, fiscally responsible decisions guided by the long-term interests of the community.
Built, not borrowed.
Not a resume. A record. More than two decades building and leading businesses,
fifteen of them right here in Nevada.
20+
Years building businesses
More than two decades in regulated, competitive fields.
15
Years building in Nevada
He chose Clark County and built here.
4
Industries he has operated in
Restaurants, real estate, travel, and consumer ventures.
The Five Stops that brought Manny here.
A timeline a career politician can't fake.
Each chapter taught a specific lesson about how Clark County actually works.
1997 - The Naval Academy.
1.
Annapolis taught discipline that does not require an audience. The chain of command. The names on the wall of Memorial Hall. The standard you keep when nobody is watching. He lost his father while he was there. That loss shaped everything that came after.
2008 - The Recession.
2.
Twenty-something during the worst economy in eighty years. The industry he was in collapsed. Most of his peers got out. He stayed long enough to learn what a P&L really means at the bottom of a cycle before the recession took its toll on his family business.
2011 - Vegas.
3.
Manny headed west and moved to Clark County with a fresh start. He had almost no contacts. He had no apartment. He was here a month before landing his first job. The desert was honest about who he was: somebody who had to build it from here.
2012 - The Kess Group.
4.
Formed in 2012 as a hospitality company of one. Just Manny. It grew to more than a dozen team members, and then came the restaurants, real estate, travel services, and responsibly farmed food. Fifteen years of payrolls since. Hospitality teaches you what a county actually feels like, one staff and one permit at a time.
2025 - The Candidate.
5.
Declared in December 2025. Posted his cell number online the same day. Won the Republican primary in June. Now the general election, November 3, 2026. The fifth stop is the one the rest were quietly preparing for.
