GOVERNOR CANDIDATES VOW TO REPRESENT ‘ALL NEVADANS’
Giunchigliani in the primary. As a mother of two children attending public school, Mahler said she was drawn to vote for Giunchigliani, a former special education teacher. One of Mahler’s children is gifted and the other is high-functioning on the autism spectrum, so she’s seen the gulf between what’s offered to some children versus those who need the most help.
Mahler said Sisolak championing $750 million in public money to build a stadium for the NFL’S Raiders in Las Vegas was unpopular up North, but that voters are more concerned about education, health care and similar kitchen-table issues.
Sisolak is working to include Northern Nevada in plans for the Raiders’ 2020 move to Las Vegas, taking a group of team officials on a tour earlier this year of potential training camp sites in the Reno area.
“He’s winning people over,” Mahler said of Sisolak and his work in Northern Nevada.
Laxalt, the Nevada attorney general whose family has extensive Reno-area ties, has pointed out that he alone has campaigned in all 17 of the state’s counties while running to replace term-limited Gov. Brian Sandoval.
“Adam is the only candidate running for governor who already represents every county and community throughout Nevada,” Parker Briden, spokesman for the Laxalt campaign, said in a statement. “He is the only candidate who has taken the time to campaign in every county of the state. He has divided his time evenly between all parts of the state, working to earn every vote he can so he can continue representing all Nevadans.”
Sisolak has yet to visit every county but said in a statement that “we’re not done yet.” After spending time campaigning last week in Sparks, Sisolak and his team returned to the Las Vegas area with plans to head back up North a few days later.
Sisolak has said that in each town he has visited, he has heard residents talk about the importance of good schools, affordable health care and job security with good pay.
“These are not northern versus southern priorities or rural versus urban,” Sisolak said. “These are Nevada’s priorities.”
Sisolak in June, after winning the Democratic nomination for governor, said he would work to earn the votes of those who supported his opponent. The challenges residents face are too great to allow differences to divide the party, he said.
“Throughout this entire campaign, I’ve aimed to talk with as many Nevadans as possible about the issues our state is facing and the future I think we can build together,” Sisolak said in a statement after campaigning in Sparks. “If you want to work together to improve our state and our families’ future, then I want you by my side, regardless of who you’ve supported in the past.”
Northern Nevada leans Republican, with the state’s only Republican majority congressional district taking up most of the northern third of the state. GOP Rep. Mark Amodei won his 2nd Congressional District race there in 2016 with 58.3 percent of the vote.
While Northern Nevada could make a difference in a tight statewide race, Clark is the county with the most active registered voters by far, at less than 1.1 million out of more than 1.5 million statewide at the close of general election voter registration in mid-october. Democrats outnumber Republicans there by more than 137,000 registered voters. Historically, though, midterm turnout in Nevada generally has been stronger among Republicans.
Sisolak said he had met residents “of all stripes from every corner of the state,” and there was still more to do.
“It’s about more than just showing up or simply making a campaign stop,” Sisolak said. “It’s about listening to — truly hearing — the concerns of everyday Nevadans and letting them know you’re going to be their advocate when elected.”
Laxalt could not be reached for comment. Briden did not answer questions about whether Laxalt was unavailable or if he was declining to answer questions on outreach in Northern Nevada.