Assemblymember Heather Goulding
- The freshman Reno Democrat succeeds Assm. Angie Taylor (D-Reno) who is now serving in the state Senate.
- She represents District 27, which encompasses parts of Northwest Reno, bordering UNR’s campus and sections of Sun Valley and Golden Valley.
- The plurality of active voters in the district are registered Democrats (about 32 percent). Nonpartisan voters comprise the second-largest share of registered voters at almost 32 percent. Nearly 25 percent are registered as Republicans, and roughly 10 percent are with minor or other parties.
- Goulding defeated Republican Carmen Ortiz by more than 11.6 percentage points in the 2024 general election.
- She is a member of the government affairs, health and human services and revenue committees.
Profile
When Goulding found herself staring at an unexpected positive pregnancy test, she was shocked to learn her IUD failed.
With two young children at the time, she faced the risky choice of continuing the pregnancy or removing her IUD with a high probability of miscarriage.
After her doctor removed the IUD, her unintended pregnancy ended in miscarriage.
Goulding said she was grateful her physician didn’t face legal threats and could provide her with the best medical care possible.
Goulding, 60, first shared the story in an op-ed supporting the 2024 ballot measure enshrining abortion access into the Nevada Constitution, saying it is vital for people to be able to make deeply personal decisions about their reproductive health care with their doctors.
It was a rare moment of personal vulnerability from the then-candidate and now-state lawmaker who prefers to focus attention on the issues rather than herself.
Goulding, a senior project manager at an energy research and evaluation firm, ran for office in 2024 after more than 20 years of volunteer service in her Northern Nevada community.
“Government can and should be impacting people’s lives in a positive way,” Goulding said in a pre-election interview. “As ‘pie in the sky’ as it sounds, I want to leave the world a better place than when I got here.”
It’s a perspective that motivated her in 2019 to volunteer to help pass legislation establishing an education program in partnership with the Nevada National Guard for 16- to 18-year-olds who are credit-deficient to gain life skills and graduate on time.
Goulding has carried that same spirit into her work in the community, where she served for 10 years as a volunteer ski instructor at the Sky Tavern Junior Ski Program, shouting encouragement from the slopes at her students. She also helped found Reno Improv, an organization focused on building an inclusive community and developing communication skills. In her free time now, Goulding volunteers as a ride leader for Reno’s local bike club and is on the board of the Reno Bike Project.
In the more than three months since she took office, Goulding said her legislative priorities have been solidified by the real-life experiences of people in her district.
At a local community advisory board meeting, Goulding said a high school student walked to the meeting and asked board members to do something about abandoned vehicles.
The high school student and other community members’ frustrations spurred Goulding to sponsor AB415, which would increase the scrap value for abandoned cars from $200 to $500 and streamline the process for disposing of abandoned, unregistered vehicles by reducing owner notification requirements if the vehicle is likely to be appraised as junk.
“Casinos on the Strip in Las Vegas are very concerned about abandoned vehicles, but high school students in my district are concerned about it, too,” Goulding said. “It’s thrilling to be able to try to make forward progress on an issue that has so many people concerned about it.”
People aren’t usually campaigning on such a nitty-gritty issue, Goulding said, but she thinks it’s important for lawmakers. Another priority bill is AB360, which aims to address congenital syphilis by requiring medical facilities to test a pregnant woman who has not received certain prenatal screenings with a rapid test unless the patient refuses. That allows the patient to know immediately if they have syphilis and requires providers to initiate treatment with consent at that point in time. She said the ideal is for that measure to reduce the number of congenital syphilis cases; but even if it has a small effect, she would consider that a win.
“The guiding light would be to make positive policy change,” she said. “I want to take three steps right now, but the reality is … those three steps are going to take longer than one session, but we’re going to take one.”
On the issues
Opportunity Scholarships
Goulding said she doesn’t support the Opportunity Scholarship program — which offers income-based state scholarships for students to attend private or religious schools — because it uses tax credits to pay for private school tuition.
“We’re giving diverted public funds to unaccountable organizations that distribute these vouchers instead of funding our own public schools,” Goulding said.
Energy
Goulding said Nevada would benefit from more rooftop and community solar programs that take advantage of existing infrastructure, as well as responsibly developed utility scale solar developments.
She added state lawmakers should promote energy efficiency through effective weatherization incentives and smart building codes.
Health care
Goulding said the Legislature should work to protect the Affordable Care Act and the state-managed federal Medicaid program serving low-income families, people with disabilities and those who are pregnant.
“Given the threats to Medicaid and consumer protections from the federal administration, it would be wise for Nevada to codify state protections for the ten essential health benefits listed in the ACA,” she said. There is not a measure to do this in the Legislature.
Elections
As some advocates have called for speeding up the ballot counting process, Goulding said getting election results right is more important than getting it fast.
“I support providing election officials with adequate staff to run elections effectively and accurately while also promoting voter access and participation,” she said.
Housing
Goulding said “change is overdue” for the current summary eviction process, which requires tenants to make the first filing in an eviction case.
“Nevada’s summary eviction process uniquely disadvantages tenants in comparison to expedited eviction processes in other states,” she said. “We need to balance tenants’ and landlords’ rights. This change is overdue.”
