 In 1971, he lost his first campaign for mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada to Oran K. Gragson, but Briare was elected in his next attempt in 1975, defeating Harry Reid.Briare was so positive about the city that people would ask him if he was the president of the Chamber of Commerce.His obituary in the "Las Vegas Review Journal" noted that Briare's "public tenure came during a key time when control of casinos shifted from organized crime figures to corporations."