Congresswoman Dina Titus, D-Nev., responds to a question during an editorial board meeting at the Las Vegas Sun office in Henderson Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.
Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Dina Titus and Mark Robertson may not see eye to eye on much, but when it comes to how competitive Nevada’s 1st Congressional District is, the two couldn’t agree more.
That’s the district the longtime Democratic Nevada congresswoman and her GOP challenger are fighting for control of as Republicans need to net five seats nationally to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Last November, the Democratic-controlled Nevada Legislature redrew Nevada’s four congressional districts based on results from the 2020 U.S. Census. The process is done every 10 years.
They split Titus’ old district — the entirety of the Las Vegas Strip, downtown Las Vegas and the heavily-Hispanic electorate in East Las Vegas — among the state’s 3rd and 4th districts to give them more Democratic voters in exchange for more Republican-leaning areas like Henderson, Boulder City and a large swath of rural land southeast of the valley.
“If the Nevada Legislature had given me a magic marker and allowed me to draw the lines, I couldn’t have done a better job,” Robertson, a former U.S. Army colonel and retired financial planner, told the Sun in an interview. “It put me in CD-1, where I raised my family, and it’s where I have the best ties. I think it’s a very balanced and diverse district. I think that’s a good thing.
“I like the idea that we need some purple or some moderate people, because it’s a moderate district. You cannot represent this district from one of the extremes, because the district is very split.”
As recently as 2018, the district skewed heavily Democratic, according to the Cook Political Report, outperforming the party by 15 points. That number has shrunk to a projected three-point advantage for this election cycle, though. Meanwhile, Nevada’s 3rd and 4th districts (represented by fellow Democrats Susie Lee and Steven Horsford) are more left-leaning than in past years.
The Titus-Robertson race could be the tightest, something Titus alluded to during an event weeks after the change. “I got totally (screwed) by the Legislature on my district,” Titus said last December during a Nevada AFL-CIO town hall. “I’m sorry to say it like that, but I don’t know any other way to say it.”
Still, Titus is confident she’ll win reelection again, and is hopeful the reshaped political map will help her party keep its narrow majority in Congress’ lower chamber.
“When you split that (district) in half, you lose that cohesiveness,” Titus said. “As a Democrat, I’m concerned that in a good year, you win all three. But if you make all three of them marginal, in a bad year, you could lose all three.”
As Nevada once again finds itself as a swing state in the national political backdrop, here’s how Titus, Robertson and Southern Nevada’s other congressional candidates position themselves with the Nov. 8 midterm quickly approaching.
1st Congressional District
Congresswoman Dina Titus, D-Nev., responds to a question during an editorial board meeting at the Las Vegas Sun office in Henderson Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.
• On the economy: As the nation wrestles with near record-high inflation, Republicans challenging Democratic incumbents have made it a priority to highlight steep gas and consumer price hikes, and polling consistently shows the economy — stemming inflation, particularly — as one of voters’ top priorities.
Mark Robertson, Republican candidate for Nevadas first congressional district, responds to a question during an editorial board meeting at the Las Vegas Sun offices in Henderson Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.
That’s the approach Robertson and other GOP contenders are taking. According to his campaign website, he advocates “examining every program within the budget,” which is drafted by the president then sent to Congress for changes and final approval.
The national debt is $31 trillion, according to usdebtclock.org, and Robertson has said balancing the budget is a top priority.
A member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Titus delivered votes to pass pandemic-era stimulus bills like the American Rescue Plan; the CHIPS Act, which aims to bolster American manufacturing of computer semiconductors; and a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Many of these laws were passed with large Republican opposition.
Investments in infrastructure, Titus says, “create good-paying jobs for hardworking individuals in Southern Nevada and across the country,” according to her congressional website. In that same entry, Titus states that economic inequality is a “defining challenge of our time,” and one of the best ways to address that is by championing labor unions so they can collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions. She’s endorsed by several labor unions throughout the valley, including Ironworkers, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the international Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and others.
• On abortion: Since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which provided the constitutional right to an abortion, Titus and other Democrats have been largely in lockstep, slamming the high court’s decision and calling for lawmakers to pass a bill codifying a woman’s right to choose.
Robertson describes himself on his website as a “pro-life and pro-family” candidate likening abortion to “an affront to the Creator.” Robertson said he agrees with the decision made in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and that it should be considered a matter left to states to decide.
On his website, Robertson said he supports abortion in cases of rape, incest or if the health of the mother is jeopardized.
“Individuals should be free to choose their actions; however, they are not free to choose the consequences of those actions,” Robertson said on his website. “Adult men and women may freely choose to engage in activities that lead to pregnancy; however, they should not be able to terminate the life, which is created as a natural consequence of their actions.”
• On guns: Robertson is a gun owner and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, but he will support legislation that improves background checks “so that we keep guns out of the hands of felons, while protecting the rights of Americans to bear arms,” but also vowed to fight “any attempt” to limit Second Amendment rights.
Last September, Titus introduced a bill that passed the House in June that would ban bump stocks — a controversial aftermarket accessory for semiautomatic weapons that effectively increase their rate-of-fire akin to machine guns. She also co-sponsored bills that seek to ban assault-style weapons as well as mandate background checks for all gun purchases.
Titus often cites the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people immediately dead and hundreds more injured, as her inspiration for stricter gun control.
• On education: Robertson, a former assistant professor at UNLV and the National Defense University, on his website has called to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and grant the $86 billion it is allotted from the federal budget back to states “with no strings attached.” He also supports school choice and opposes critical race theory and other “divisive” equity training from being taught in schools.
Titus, also a former UNLV professor, doesn’t have listed on her website her stance on school choice or what is taught in public schools, but lauded the Biden administration’s decision to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower.
Since 2020, Titus has also voted in favor of the NURSE Act, which gave public schools funding for full-time nurses, and pandemic-era bills to reopen schools with remote learning technology and personal protective equipment.
3rd Congressional District
• On the economy: Republican April Becker, a real estate attorney, is facing Democratic incumbent Rep. Susie Lee in the district ranging from Summerlin to Laughlin.
Susie Lee, Democrat representative for Nevadas 3rd congressional district, responds to a question during an editorial board meeting at the Las Vegas Sun offices in Henderson Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Brian Ramos
Becker argues on her website that vocational training to replace Nevada’s aging workforce is key to jump-starting the economy, as well as eliminating bureaucratic hurdles that “stifle innovation and growth,” and favors “a tax structure that encourages our entrepreneurial spirit.”
Republican candidate for U.S. Congress April Becker is shown May 29 in Las Vegas in the window of her campaign van. A Las Vegas resident has filed complaints with federal officials alleging Becker’s required candidate disclosure forms are deficient.
Like Titus, Lee voted in favor of the CHIPS Act, the American Rescue Plan and bipartisan infrastructure bill. She also voted in favor of a failed bill that would have been the first-ever federal law against price gouging.
On her campaign website, Lee also defends voting in favor of COVID relief funding, saying it was a necessity to keep the country afloat.
“Susie delivered necessary relief to Nevadans at the height of the pandemic when they needed help most, and now, she’s supporting legislation to lower prices at the grocery store, at the pump and holding price-gouging corporations accountable,” her website states.
• On abortion: Like other Democrats, Lee condemned the high court’s ruling in Dobbs, and urged her colleagues to pass a federal law protecting abortion access as quickly as possible. She even called for her counterparts in the U.S. Senate to end the filibuster, a mechanism that requires 60 of the upper chamber’s 100 votes to advance a bill past debate.
Becker, on her website, describes herself as a “pro-life mom” who is against abortion except in cases of rape, incest and health of the mother. She said the recent Supreme Court ruling gave states the authority to regulate abortions how they see fit, and believes any federal action on abortion restrictions is unconstitutional.
“Consistent with that opinion, April will vote against any attempt to regulate abortion at the federal level,” Becker’s website states.
• On guns: Becker was endorsed by the National Rifle Association when she ran unsuccessfully for Nevada Senate in 2020, but the group has not yet endorsed her for this election cycle. She claims she’s been “a responsible firearm owner for years and supports” the Second Amendment, as well as the right to protect and defend oneself.
Lee has supported universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks as far back as 2018, according to a survey response to Ballotpedia, a digital encyclopedia for elections, politics and policy in the U.S. She’s also voiced support for a national red-flag law.
• On education: Lee, a former schoolteacher, introduced an amendment to the Rebuild America’s Schools Act to address overcrowding in K-12 classrooms, as well as an amendment that would increase funding for STEM programs in public schools.
Becker supports school choice, billing it a “commonsense approach that allows children to escape failing schools.”
She also supports a tax deduction increase for teachers who buy school supplies out-of-pocket. Additionally, she said on her website that the government should spend less money “on the educational bureaucracy.”
4th Congressional District
• On the economy: Republican Sam Peters argues that decades of government spending, in addition to legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden, have fueled inflation, which is now at 8.2% according to the latest government report.
Representative (D-NV 4th District) Steven Horsford speaks to the Las Vegas Sun editorial board Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022.
Peters, a retired Air Force major, endorses a “Balanced Budget Amendment” aimed at eliminating deficit spending.
Sam Peters, Republican candidate for Nevadas 4th Congressional District, sits down with the Las Vegas Sun editorial team to discuss policy issues, Monday Sept. 26, 2022.
Such a provision, which would require Congress not to spend more than the country’s income from tax revenue, has been added to constitutions in Germany, Italy, Poland and others. Some Republicans have advocated for an amendment to the Constitution.
“I will lay it on the feet of the (current) administration, and I will lay it at the feet of the administrations past,” Peters said of inflation. “We have an incredible problem with spending at the federal level. It is not respectful to the people of Nevada, and it is not respectful to the people of the United States.”
He faces Horsford, the Democratic incumbent, who acknowledges the high prices of food, gas and other consumer goods since the pandemic but said inflation is an issue threatening economies around the world, amplified by ongoing global supply chain woes and Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
“We are experiencing the worst global pandemic in my lifetime,” Horsford said. “We are experiencing supply chain disruptions like we’ve never seen. It’s not limited to the United States, it’s all around the world. And we’re seeing a level of corporate greed that has exacerbated the problem.”
• On abortion: Horsford said the future of women’s reproductive rights in America will be all but determined after the midterms. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., last month introduced legislation that would ban abortions after 15 weeks gestation, and would supersede Nevada’s existing statute which protects abortions up to 24 weeks, while Democrats swiftly introduced bills to codify the right to abortion after the Supreme Court ruling this summer.
Any legislation that goes through Congress would ultimately need Biden’s signature to become law. Regardless, Horsford said, whichever party controls Congress will be able to dictate a “private and personal” choice that would affect millions of women.
“This is one of the most important choices, and consequences, of this election,” Horsford said. “Because in this case, Congress really does matter. There are some things we leave to the states, we leave to governors, we leave to legislatures. No. This Congress is going to decide in the near future whether women’s freedoms are protected.”
Peters said Nevada’s existing statute protecting abortion is enshrined in the state’s constitution, and while describing himself as a “pro-life” candidate, he supports exceptions for abortion in the cases of incest, rape and health of the mother.
On Peters’ website, he says he would reintroduce and sponsor the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit abortion after 20 weeks.
“I am a pro-life candidate,” Peters said. “That doesn’t mean I’m anti-abortion, and it doesn’t mean I want to ban abortion in all cases for all reasons. … The people of Nevada voted. The people’s will is 24 weeks. There are exceptions for life of the mother, incest and rape. I have always been supportive of those exceptions.”
• On guns: Peters said he is “card-carrying” lifetime member of the NRA and Gun Owners of America, and spent his childhood hunting and shooting guns. His website states “gun ownership is a responsibility and proper training and care should be taken when handling and caring for a weapon.”
The website does not propose any legislation for bolstering Second Amendment freedoms or gun control.
Horsford introduced the Break the Cycle of Violence Act that passed the House 220-207 in September.
The bill would establish federal grant programs to support violence intervention initiatives, according to Congress.gov. Further, it would direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to award grants for coordinated community violence intervention programs as well as award grants to the U.S. Department of Labor for workforce training programs for at-risk youth.
• On education: Horsford was an advocate for student loan forgiveness before Biden’s executive action, and called for the president to cancel $15,000 for all federal borrowers, according to his website.
A union advocate and former labor leader, Horsford is in favor of vocational training programs as well as making apprenticeships and trade schools more accessible.
Peters also advocates for expanded access to vocational schools, as well as science, technology and math programs.
Like his fellow Republican challengers, he supports school choice and wants to introduce legislation that would withhold funding from states that have critical race theory in their curriculum.
Currently, no public K-12 schools in the nation teach critical race theory — a “loosely organized framework of legal analysis” that argues race is not a natural physical trait but is rather a social construct used to oppress people of color, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. It is often conflated with discussion or training about unconscious bias, privilege and discrimination, according to the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy think tank.
“We will never fix our problems by throwing money on the fire,” Peters states on his website. “We will never allow failing schools to be rewarded with more money to keep failing.”
