A brothel-owning, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate who died last month has been elected to the Nevada state legislature.

Key points: Under Nevada law, Dennis Hof remained on the ballot even after he died

Under Nevada law, Dennis Hof remained on the ballot even after he died He still attracted 68 per cent of the vote, beating Democrat candidate Lesia Romanov

He still attracted 68 per cent of the vote, beating Democrat candidate Lesia Romanov Election officials will appoint a candidate from the same party to replace Mr Hof

Dennis Hof, 72, defeated female Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada's 36th Assembly District, earning about 68 per cent of the vote.

County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat.

Mr Hof, who presented himself as an American pimp, was a strip-club owner who ran multiple brothels and was found dead at one of his properties on October 16.

Friends found him dead when they went to wake him for a meeting hours after his 72nd birthday party, his campaign manager, Chuck Muth, said on Twitter.

He had nicknamed himself the "Trump from Pahrump," after the town where he lived in Nevada.

A notice at a polling booth in Pahrump, Nevada informing voters that Republican candidate Dennis Hof is dead, but still appeared on the ballot. ( Twitter: @RileySnyder )

In a June interview with Reuters at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near his home in Pahrump, Nevada, Mr Hof said his political fortunes had parallels with those of US President Donald Trump.

"This really is the Trump movement," Mr Hof said.

"People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office."

The thrice-divorced author of The Art of the Pimp, who appeared on HBO program Cathouse, owned a strip club and five legal brothels in Nevada, the only US state with legalised prostitution.

Mr Muth was one of many who predicted last month that Mr Hof would win, stating Republicans had a two-to-one advantage over Democrats in the state assembly district in terms of voter registration.

"I know Republicans in Nevada got massacred tonight, but my man Dennis Hof crushed his opponent from the great beyond in AD-36 & we crushed the anti-brothel initiative in Lyon County by about 80 per cent," Mr Muth wrote on Twitter.

"So pardon me, but I'm celebrating."

Reuters