Outside memorial, community members pay their respects to Harry Reid

By Casey Harrison (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 | 10:20 p.m.

Vincent Lam remembers when life wasn’t so easy.

He and his family had immigrated to the United States in 1980 when he was still just a toddler even though all they seemingly had was the shirts on their back.

“Literally nothing,” Lam recalls what his family brought with them to America.

But just like one of Lam’s favorite political idols — the late Democratic former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who died late last month at 82 — Lam considers himself a fighter. Now the owner of an accounting firm in Irvine, Calif., the 45-year-old Lam traveled with his family to downtown Las Vegas on Saturday to join about a dozen others to pay respects to Reid outside of the high-profile, invitation-only memorial service at the Smith Center for Performing Arts.

“He’s a man who came from the most humble of beginnings to reach the pinnacle of power,” Lam said of Reid, the soft-spoken Searchlight native who spent more than 30 years representing Nevada in Congress. “It serves as an inspiration, what is possible in America.”

Reid’s greatest achievement, Lam said, was corralling 60 votes for the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, the legacy-defining legislation of Barack Obama’s presidency that gave millions of Americans access to health insurance.

At the time of the ACA’s passage, Lam said he was just beginning his own CPA firm, and would not have been able to afford health care otherwise had it not been for that new law.

That was a big concern for me at that time. Being a new business owner, I had a very minimal income,” Lam said. “So I was able to get affordable health care for a number of years as I was building up my business.”

“It’s amazing how one man can make such a difference in the lives of millions of Americans who have gotten health care because of the mastery of his skills.”

Others clearly felt the same way, the late senator included.

In his final address in the Senate, Reid said it would have been “wonderful” if the law had existed when he was growing up under poverty in Searchlight.

“We didn’t go to doctors. It was a rare, rare occasion,” Reid said. “There was no one to go to.”

Reid often shared the story of how he worked at a service station as a kid to save $250 to buy dentures for his mother. He called it the “one thing I did in my life that I am so proud of.”

He also talked frankly about how his father struggled with mental health issues before committing suicide.

“I think everyone can understand just a little bit why I’ve been such an avid supporter of Obamacare, health care,” Reid said.

The act, which was signed into law in 2010, has long faced resistance from Republicans. When speaking about the value of the law a few years ago at a Las Vegas event, Reid stressed that “a great nation can’t have upwards of 40 million to 50 million people with no way to go to a hospital or see a doctor.”

While eulogizing Reid at Saturday’s service, Obama said Reid had the ability to work together with other lawmakers to be productive, and that he had never heard Reid speak of politics as if it was some “unbending evil.”

“You wanted Harry in the foxhole with you,” said Obama, who was urged by Reid to run for president in 2008. His willingness to fight by my side, to stick with me even when things weren’t going our way. … it’s a debt to him I cannot fully repay.”

Nevadans outside of the memorial Saturday credited Reid for fighting for the state on a national level, and many credit him for why they’re engaged in politics today.

Shelbie Swartz, 28, of Las Vegas said she always remembered swaths of lawn signs supporting Reid show up in her neighborhood around Election Day.

“I feel like Senator Reid was the person who made me and many other young engaged folks feel that we could make a difference because he put Nevada on the national stage,” she said. “We’re not Washington, D.C. We’re not New York. We’re in the West and we still matter.”

Others outside the service were there to make a statement in a different, louder fashion.

Approximately two dozen protesters waved American and Confederate flags in support of Donald Trump, as well as others boasting signs and hurling expletive-ridden chants aimed at President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other high-profile Democrats attending the service.

“I wanted to let all of the Democratic officials coming here to know that we’re not going down without a fight,” said Natalie Maria, 43, of Las Vegas and one of the protesters.

Some pro-Trump protesters were still shouting debunked claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and at least one held up a sign supporting those arrested in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Across Symphony Park Avenue, where the conservative demonstrators were airing their grievances, Lam was with his wife, Susan, and twin children Grace and John, across the street from the memorial.

While holding his daughter in one arm, he was trying to orchestrate a family selfie in front of the Smith Center, where the service for Reid was soon starting.

While Lam was trying to ignore the politically-fueled banter, he pointed with his family, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the many policymakers making their way into the service.

“I think every Nevadan — whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican — should appreciate the fact that Nevada, before Harry Reid came along, was just another state in the union,” Lam said.