The Tom Green - Troy Regas Endorsement: An Unexpected Turnabout
What a former county sheriff’s defense of Troy Regas tells us about this race for Washoe District 3 Commissioner.
Apr 19, 2026
There are endorsements, and then there are confessions. This is a turn of events.
What former Washoe County Sheriff Tom Green delivered in his defense of Troy Regas is not a conventional endorsement. It is something far more revealing: a justification, a recalibration. A man explaining, in real time, why he is willing to cross a line he once helped to draw.
And in doing so, Tom Green may have told us more about this race, and the voters shaping it, than any campaign or newspaper ever could.
Click the image to view Tom Green’s 10-minute video endorsement of Troy Regas.
A Lawman Crossing His Own Line
Green begins by acknowledging the obvious tension: a 26-year law enforcement veteran backing a man tied to the Hell’s Angels. He doesn’t dodge it. He leans into it.
Tom reminds the audience that he surveilled the group, wiretapped conversations, searched their trash, and ran informants inside their clubhouse.
He positions himself as someone who knows the organization intimately, not from headlines, but from inside the machinery of investigation.
And then comes the pivot:
Despite all of that, he says, nothing substantial ever surfaced about Regas. No criminal allegations. No actionable evidence. Nothing stuck.
This is not an attempt to sanitize Regas. It’s something more strategic.
Green is saying: I know the worst-case claims about this man, and I’m still choosing him over the opposition because he isn’t the bad guy that you might think, he’s for the people.
That matters. Because it reframes the debate, the question is no longer, “Is Regas controversial?” The question becomes, “What makes someone like Green decide the controversy no longer disqualifies him?”
The Moment That Changed the Equation
Green’s answer is founded in 2020, and the riots, when he saw Troy in action.
Tom points to the unrest in downtown Reno, the breach of City Hall, the perceived stand-down response from leadership, and what he describes as a failure of authority.
Then he introduces the counter-image: Hell’s Angels members standing in front of a business, prepared to defend it.
And in that moment, Green redraws the moral map. In his telling, institutions hesitated. Outsiders acted. That’s the turning point. And Troy led it.
A moment of perceived order versus disorder, and who showed up when it mattered. That’s the axis on which this endorsement turns.
Link: Riots in Reno after peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration
If you don’t remember the riots, here’s a link. I was there. Later, I talked with Troy about the incident at the shop, and now we have Tom’s verification that it really happened.
From Liability to Asset
Every campaign has a problem it must overcome.
For Troy Regas, that problem is obvious: association with a group that has been the subject of decades of controversy. Green doesn’t try to erase that problem. He flips it.
He argues that whatever concerns might exist are outweighed by what he saw in that moment in 2020: decisiveness, presence, and willingness to act when others would not.
This is a classic inversion:
What was once disqualifying becomes proof of authenticity.
What was once a risk becomes evidence of independence.
What was once a liability becomes a signal to voters who distrust institutions.
It’s not a defense. It’s a repositioning.
Hell’s Angel, Business Owner and Candidate for Washoe District 3
In this article, I profile Troy Regas based on a YouTube channel interview and a later conversation with him.
Not a County Race: A Cultural One
What’s striking is how little of Green’s argument is actually about county government. There is no discussion of zoning, infrastructure, budgets, or service delivery.
Instead, the race is framed as something larger:
A rejection of “progressive narratives.”
A critique of political leadership during unrest
A distrust of party structures and endorsements
A preference for outsiders over insiders
Green lends his support to Regas, whose appeal is rooted less in governance credentials than in action and disruption.
This is not about who will manage the county better. It’s about who represents a break from the system and a voice for the people. It’s about who will take action for change.
I visited the Hells Angels Clubhouse and met a nice bunch of guys who like riding motorcycles and handing out turkeys.
The Target Isn’t Just Mariluz Garcia
While Green’s rhetoric toward Mariluz Garcia is aggressive, it serves a purpose.
She becomes the embodiment of everything he rejects:
Institutional alignment
Political orthodoxy
The handling of the 2020 unrest
A worldview he sees as opposed to his own
But the real target extends beyond Garcia.
Green aims at the Washoe GOP itself, suggesting paralysis, outside influence, and a failure to back candidates decisively, such as Regas or even Mike Clark.
This is where the endorsement becomes something else entirely:
A signal of fracture. Not just between candidates, but within the party, within the base, and within the broader political alignment of the region.
The Washoe GOP’s Candidate List is Confusion
In this article, I discuss how the Washoe GOP excluded Troy Regas and Mike Clark because of its rules on tribal loyalty, not because of their ability to win an election.
The Risk in the Argument
There is power in what Green is doing. By centering the endorsement on emotion, identity, and confrontation, he gives Regas intensity. Voters looking for a reason to break from the system will hear this clearly.
And then there is the line that will linger:
Green’s framing of the Hell’s Angels, “despite all the things they’re accused of being involved in,” has them aligned with freedom, patriotism, and standing up for what’s right, at a time when city leadership failed.
That divide represents the current race for Washoe County District 3 Commissioner.
What This Endorsement Really Means
Tom Green didn’t try to make Troy Regas safe. He didn’t try to make him conventional. He didn’t even try to make him broadly acceptable.
He made him relatable to a kind of voter: one who believes the system has failed, distrusts institutions, and values action over alignment.
In that sense, this endorsement is not about persuasion. It’s about permission. Permission for voters who were already leaning in that direction to say:
Yes, I see the risks, and I’m choosing Regas anyway.
The Bottom Line
The Green endorsement tells us something simple and uncomfortable:
Troy Regas is no longer running as a curiosity. He is running as a vehicle. Not for consensus, but for change and for the common people.
And in a county where trust in institutions is eroding, that may be enough to turn a long-shot candidacy into something more serious.
Because once voters stop asking, “Is this candidate acceptable?”
And start asking, “Is he willing to fix what isn’t working?”
The rules of the race change. And once that happens, they don’t change back.
Troy is hosting a fundraiser this Thursday, April 23, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm at the Knights of Pythias Hall, 980 Nevada Street in Reno.
You can contact Troy at: 4troyregas@gmail.com, or visit his website at https://votetroyregas.com/, or meet him on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/troy.regas
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