A voter deposits his voting card into a ballot box at a polling site in Summerlin Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Published Wednesday, June 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, June 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Related content
Polling places across Clark County welcomed a steady flow of voters Tuesday for the primary election.
From long lines at a mall in Henderson to a recreation center in Summerlin, locals who participated were enthused to fulfill their democratic duty.
They were voting in 84 contested races featuring 340 candidates, ranging from the U.S. Senate to the local school board. Voters cited gun control, the economy, women’s reproductive rights and education as key issues that informed their selections.
Reporters from the Sun fanned out across the valley to talk to voters about the races, candidates and issues that matter the most to them.
Here are some of their stories:
On Heller, Laxalt and Lee
Chuck Blackard of Las Vegas voted Tuesday for former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller in the Republican primary for Nevada governor.
Blackard said Heller’s experience in Washington would be pivotal in a general election tilt against incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.
“We just need somebody who can get Sisolak out of there. I think he might have the best shot,” Blackard, 73, said at the polling site at Veterans Memorial Leisure Center in Summerlin.
Blackard, who works in accounting, said the impact of the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic was crippling for Nevadans.
Unemployment hit a record 30% in 2020 during a nearly 90-day shutdown of nonessential businesses, including casinos in the resort corridor.
“In 2020, he did nothing for unemployment,” Blackard said of Sisolak. “I had people literally crying in my office thinking I could do something. And he knew this was coming.”
Sisolak has touted the state’s strong economic recovery since then, with a resurgence in tourism, record gaming revenue and a sharp decline in unemployment, which was 5% in April.
Many Republican voters were selecting the candidates they thought could best challenge Sisolak and incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in the November general election. Both races are expected to be closely contested.
Petra Doerr, 56, said she picked Republican Adam Laxalt in the Senate race because “he’s spent long enough in the political arena (to be effective) but not too long. I think he’s just the right person to do it.”
For Christopher LoFrisco, 60, the best person to face off with Sisolak is North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, a former Democrat who switched parties to run for governor.
“I like his record of success in North Las Vegas,” LoFrisco said. “I know that he’s not a traditional conservative or Republican, but I voted for him because I like what he did in North Las Vegas.”
— Casey Harrison
On insiders and outsiders
At a polling site in Moapa Valley, about 75 miles from Las Vegas, Matthew Massaro said he was voting for Republican Sam Brown for Senate over Adam Laxalt.
Massaro said he didn’t dislike Laxalt, but the amount of support he got from Washington — former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Mitch McConnell gave endorsements — made him less appealing. He said Laxalt was from “the swamp.”
Brown, a U.S. Army veteran who entered the primary as an underdog in the polls, “looks and sounds like what we need in the office,” Massaro said.
Dianne Leavitt, who voted at the Moapa Recreation Center, said she picked Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
Leavitt said she wanted to see beefed up Election Day security, claiming she voted in the parking lot of a big box store in the 2020 general election and was intimidated by a poll worker because she supported Trump.
— Jessica Hill
On education
If voters like Brenda Thomas don’t look out for children’s interests at the ballot box, she asked, who will?
“We have to,” the mother of four, grandmother of 17 and one-time foster parent to many more said while waiting to vote at the Galleria at Sunset mall in Henderson. “If it has to do with a child, I’m listening.”
Her youngest grandchild is 15. She said the Clark County School Board needs to turn around the school district’s recent struggles with campus safety and student discipline.
Education was also the most important issue for Melissa Hall, who brought her four children, ages 3 to 11, with her to the polls.
Her school-aged children have attended a private Christian school, which returned to in-person classes sooner than public schools did during the pandemic.
But this fall, her eldest will be attending White Middle School, a CCSD school. “I feel like the School Board didn’t really take care of our kids during COVID,” she said. “That needs to change.”
— Hillary Davis
On trustworthiness
Billy Justice first voted in 1972 when he picked Richard Nixon for president and says he hasn’t missed an election since, including Tuesday morning when he dropped off his ballot at a polling site in east Las Vegas.
“Nixon was the only time I’ve voted Republican, and he got run out of office,” Justice said.
Jim Nichol of Las Vegas, a Republican voter, came to the Whitney Recreation Center polling location with his attention focused on a particular race — the gubernatorial primary.
“I don’t know if I trust (Sheriff) Joe Lombardo, but I did vote for him,” Nichol said. “There’s something about him I’m not sure about, but I thought he was the best option.”
Republican voter Gerald Juneman of Las Vegas picked the two favorites in the GOP primary in Lombardo for governor and Laxalt for Senate.
Juneman’s wife, Margaret Crow, accompanied him Tuesday, but she was there to drop off her mail ballot, which she filled out previously.
“I thought it was just easier to do it that way,” Crow said. “I had been writing down a list of people I thought I like from the television. I felt like it would be safer to come and drop my ballot off in a box here today, not some box around town.”
— Bryan Horwath
On opposition to Sisolak
Pam and Harry Abramowitz don’t want another Sisolak in charge of the state. Voting for Lombardo, in their eyes, would bring just that.
The couple voted for different candidates in the Republican the governor’s race — Lee for Harry, Reno attorney Joey Gilbert for Pam — hoping their votes would be part of what they understand is a last-ditch effort for someone to pull off an upset over the favored Lombardo.
“The problem is, voting for Joe Lombardo from what I’ve read and from what I know, Joe Lombardo did a lot to help Sisolak,” Harry Abramowitz said. “So if Lombardo beats Sisolak, we’ve got another Sisolak in there.”
The Southern Highlands residents ultimately feel that Lombardo will challenge Sisolak for governor in November. Voting between the two, however, is choosing between the lesser of two evils, Harry Abramowitz said.
“He backed Sisolak on a lot of stuff and the way he handled the Route 91 situation, that was all shot up,” he said. “(Lombardo) just leans too much like a Democrat to me. Maybe I’m wrong. John Lee, for me, he’ll make North Las Vegas the second-biggest city real soon in Nevada, not Henderson.”
— Danny Webster
On an optimistic note
Hieu Le, who is running for a seat on the Board of Regents, stood alone holding a campaign sign in the parking of the Desert Breeze Community Center.
It’s the third of eight stops the 25-year-old Vietnamese American would make.
“I’ve been inspiring younger folks to come out and just say, ‘Hey, I wanna run. I wanna make a change in my community,’ ” Le said.
Le, a 2020 graduate of UNLV, is vying to become Nevada’s youngest regent.
He said “anyone who is Asian American, anyone who is Hispanic or anyone who is Black in the community and Vegas” should “step up (and) run” for political positions.
— Grace Da Rocha
