Republican Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama dropped a congressional bid to protect her Assembly seat. She is being challenged by Democrat Ron Nelsen.
Republican Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama, a two-term incumbent, holds a sizable fundraising lead against her Democratic opponent Ron Nelsen in the race for the red-leaning Assembly District 2 in Clark County.
Kasama, a real estate agent who was first elected to AD 2 in 2020, originally announced a bid for Congressional District 3 before dropping out this year to seek re-election for her current seat.
When she announced a challenge to Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, she received support from then-House Republican Majority Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California.
After he was ousted from the position by his own party last October, Kasama started having concerns she wouldn’t have enough backing, including financial support, to challenge an incumbent in a competitive district.
At the same time, she also grew concerned about the Democrats flipping AD 2, potentially strengthening the Democratic supermajority in the Assembly. Democrats currently have the bare minimum for a supermajority in the Assembly — 28 of 42 seats.
“My seat has become critically important to help with the governor’s veto ability,” she said. “We have to keep Assembly District 2, keep Assembly District 4 and pick up one other seat to get out of the super minority.”
She said that Gov. Joe Lombardo reached out and said “it would serve Nevada better if I stayed in Assembly District 2 to support the governor.”
She dropped out of the CD 3 race at the beginning of the year.
Kasama will face Nelsen, a small business owner who previously ran in AD 2 in 2016 but came in a close second in the Democratic primary.
Nelsen said his decision to run that year was because he was “heartbroken from the red wave in 2014” and was “fired up” to do something about it.
Kasama has raised $95,000, more than triple what Nelsen has raised at $25,000.
Republicans have a voter registration edge in AD 2, with 15,646 active Republican registered voters compared to 14,512 active registered Democratic voters, and 15,652 active nonpartisan voters.
Both candidates still think it’s competitive.
“The district is not deep Republican or deep Democrat,” Kasama said. “It’s a district that’s a toss up. I think you have to have the ability to reach across the party line and reach out to the nonpartisan and bring them in. I’ve been successful at doing that.”
Keeping the veto power has been a top priority for Republicans this election cycle. Lombardo has stepped up efforts to break the Democratic supermajority in the Assembly and stop Democrats from gaining supermajorities in both chambers.
Kasama said the power of the veto prevents one party from pushing through “sloppy legislation” and forces members to work together to compromise.
“I believe we truly end up with better policies and laws because we all sat at the table and worked on it,” she said.
Lombardo vetoed a record-breaking 75 bills, including measures that would have provided health care coverage for pregnant undocumented women, reformed the eviction process, offered modest tenant protections, and capped rent at 10% for people older than 62 or who rely on disability insurance benefits for one year.
When asked about retaining a Democratic supermajority, Nelsen said it wasn’t an issue he is running on.
“That’s not on my plate and not for me to decide,” he said. “I’m running to make AD 2 more representative of the people who live in AD 2.”
As a long-time resident of AD 2, Nelsen said he wasn’t happy with how Kasama has voted against a variety of issues like the bill that authorized funding for universal free breakfast and lunch and legislation that offered eviction protections.
Kasama said she is working with Lombardo to bring legislation that would require at least a 72 hour period between the time a bill is introduced and heard, though she thinks the timeframe should be a week.
“You can literally have a bill introduced on the last day of session and have it voted on,” she said. “There is absolutely no time for people to read the bill and weigh in on it and have stakeholders weigh in on it. That is a travesty for our state. That is not good governance or good policy.”
Other priorities, she said, include more legislation that requires more accountability around education funding and addressing the health care crisis and doctor shortage.
The state needs to look at ways to “increase our Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates,” Kasama said.
While knocking on doors, Nelsen said people are concerned about the affordable housing crisis, affordable prescriptions and the access to abortion and reproductive health care.
He said he is open to any proposal that will improve the quality of life of Nevadans.
Nelsen didn’t have a specific policy proposal to address the affordable housing crisis but mentioned lawmakers should look at the impact of corporate entities swooping in to buy “hundreds of homes in a few days.”
He also said he would consider any bill that would help keep people in their homes.
“I would be a freshman Assembly person and I would have to look at each thing that comes at me and vote the proper way,” Nelsen said. “I don’t have a specific proposal. I’m not a policy wonk yet.”
Kasama said there should be more effort to pressure the federal government to open more Bureau of Land Management land to aid the development of affordable housing, a priority of Lombardo’s.
Lombardo sent several letters to the White House this year blaming the Biden administration for its role in the housing crisis.
Lombardo argued the administration was not doing enough to make more federal land available for housing development.
Some local and national housing policy experts say that developing further outside city limits would come with other problems, and have encouraged policymakers to consider infill development, which utilizes existing urban spaces.
In addition to BLM being made available to develop more housing, Kasama said there should be requirements put in place to ensure any development acquired from the federal government for the express purpose of developing affordable housing will “remain affordable housing for people” and not be sold for profit.
She also agreed that infill development “is the most important” aspect of addressing the housing crisis and said state lawmakers should work with local governments to help streamline regulations to aid in more development.
“We can no longer just have all zoning for single family residential,” she said. “We have to have more density. We have to allow for duplexes. Higher density housing. The only way we’re going to get out of this is to increase the housing stock.”