Duerr, Kerns, Taylor vie for nomination
After State Senate District 15 in 2021 was redrawn to be friendlier to Democratic candidates, Republican Senate Minority Leader Heidi Seevers Gansert opted not to run for reelection.
Two well-known Democrats jumped to fill the void left by this open seat that represents large portions of Reno: Assemblywoman and former school board president Angie Taylor and Reno City Council member Naomi Duerr.
They're joined by Johnny Kerns on the Democratic primary ballot.
In November, the winner will face one of three Republicans: Sharron Angle, Mike Ginsburg or Mark Neumann.
The primary is Tuesday, June 11. Early voting runs May 25-June 7.
Where is Nevada State Senate District 15?
State Senate District 15 includes Sun Valley, northwest Reno and large parts of southwest Reno, stretching from Longley Lane west to Mayberry Drive. Naomi Duerr
● Age: 67
● Education: Bachelor's degree in geology and a master's in public administration and public policy, both from University of Nevada, Reno
● Occupation: Geologist, smallbusiness owner, Reno City Council member
● Political experience: Elected three times to the Reno City Council, currently vice mayor
● Family: Married
● Money raised in 2024:
(cash on hand: $66,000)
● Biggest donors: Robert Hager, Shirley Roberts, Reno Engineering Corp., Atlantis Casino Resort, Nevada Mine Properties, Richard Harris Johnny Kerns
● Age: 44
● Education: Associate's degree in political science, bachelor's degree in political science, justice, psychology
● Occupation: Homicide investigator and author
● Political experience: Justice of the peace, commissioner of the Superior Court
● Political affiliation: Democrat
● Family: Unmarried
● Money raised in 2024:
(cash on hand: $300)
● Biggest donor: Johnny Kerns Angie Taylor
● Age: 60
● Education: Ph.D. in Education
● Occupation: Consultant
● Political experience: Washoe County School District Board of Trustees 2014-2022; Nevada State Assembly 2022 to present
● Family: Single
● Money raised in 2024:
(cash on hand: $163,000)
● Biggest donors: New Day Nevada PAC; PR&M Investments; Committee to Elect Steven Yeager; Nevada Strong PAC; Citizens for Justice PAC
$29,000
$1,000
$69,500
What do Nevada election laws get right and what would you like to see changed?
• Naomi Duerr: The election laws, I think, are quite effective. They provide broad access for people to participate in our democracy. Voting locations have expanded, and mail-in ballots have made it much easier for people to participate.
I want to increase outreach to rural communities and Native American communities. I was a poll manager at a polling location for many years. I became acutely aware of the need to be able to engage all voters in the voting process. It's not just different languages, but it's all kinds of accessibility. Some people can't see, some can't hear.
It's just very important to me to ensure voting is accessible to all so I want to continue expanding access to all communities.
• Johnny Kerns: I think Nevada election laws are designed to support the integrity of the election system so they get a lot of things right.
Strengthening some tactics that are traditionally considered voter suppression – voter identification laws – gives me pause. Not everybody has a driver's license in this day and age. A lot of young voters would feel forced out of the process.
And I want a more open primary process where we're choosing candidates and voting on issues rather than a strict identification of party. I have friends who can't vote for me in the primary because they're registered independents. That's unfair and not necessarily in the best interest of creating good candidates for Nevada.
• Angie Taylor: We get universal mail-in balloting right. Our participation rate has increased dramatically since doing that. As citizens of our state, we want more participation. I don't want anyone who shouldn't vote to vote, but I think we should make it as easy as possible for those who are able to vote so they can participate in the democratic process, as is their constitutional right.
It's not a law, but I'm concerned about the change in mail processing and the impact that may have on legal votes getting counted. Having to go over the hill to Sacramento and come back, it's going to take longer to get to the registrar's office so some votes are likely to be off.
How would you hold schools accountable for improving student performance?
• Duerr: In terms of accountability, we cannot reward lack of performance, but we can reward performance.
We can also help our teachers be more effective. That would be my focus. Everybody in every field needs to have continuous learning. We need to continue to hone our knowledge and our practice and the ways in which we can communicate that. So the training might be in communication, the training might be in the subject matter. But I really do support teacher institutes and teacher training because at the end of the day, it's about wanting to do better.
• Kerns: Many states have smaller budgets than Nevada without the revenues and resources from gambling and tourism, and yet they manage to churn out higher graduation rates and better educated students. So it's important to ask why.
We have 50 independent laboratories to try different methods to achieve results. If we are close to the bottom, if not tied for 50th in the nation, then we should take a look at our neighbors and see what worked and what could be done in Nevada to make sure we improve our failing system. Then we rise up and learn from our failures – we don't just keep throwing good money after bad and repeating the same mistakes because it obviously isn't working.
• Taylor: First, I think it's important to have the context that the historic funding of $2 billion (by the 2023 Legislature) was needed because we haven't been putting money into education, and that's how we got so far behind (on student performance measures).
We didn't get to 49th in funding overnight, so we aren't going to get out of it overnight. But because we just had this historical investment, I think we need to start asking questions right away: How do we know we're even moving in the right direction? How are we measuring growth?
There should be some accountability so we know whether where we're putting it is really making a difference for students and teachers.
If you could do one thing to make housing more affordable in Nevada, what would it be?
• Duerr:
Affordable housing is focused on people who have different levels of AMI (area median income). There's 30%, 50%, 80%. The (affordable housing) rent is pegged to AMI, but as we've diversified our economy and wages have risen, that hasn't happened for everyone. Social Security hasn't increased by a like amount. I've had people move out of “affordable housing” because they can no longer afford it.
So if you asked me for one thing, it would be a rent cap for seniors. I don't want to say you have to hold the rent steady – prices go up, we get it. But there's a reasonable increase and then there are unreasonable increases for people who simply can't afford to live anymore.
• Kerns: The state has a lot of control over how the evictions process proceeds, and it prescribes the manner of that process to the judiciary. So the first thing I would do is introduce legislation to reform our really unjust eviction laws.
You look at other states, and it's generally a 30-day process that unfolds – 30 days is not long. We should be trying to keep people in their homes so that we don't create more problems.
If you are undertaking to rent properties and you can't shoulder one month of expenses, you have no business, in my opinion, taking the risk of being a property renter. So when I get to the State Senate, I will introduce legislation to change the eviction process. I know this has bipartisan support.
• Taylor: We passed eight laws to impact housing and only three of them got signed (by Gov. Joe Lombardo) so I think there are some opportunities there (in the next legislative session).
I think we can take a look at publicprivate partnerships and how we can take greater advantage of federal dollars. As a state, we don't do a very good job of that. We're like 49th in the country among states that get the most federal-match dollars. We leave a lot of dollars on the table – and some of those are in housing.
And I think we can incentivize developers to be partners with us at the state level, at the Housing Authority level.
Candidate responses were edited for length and clarity from phone interviews.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.