It’s no secret that Nevada’s legislative power is consolidated in populous Southern Nevada.
But Northern Nevada’s Senate District 15 could be key to Democrats clinching their first two-thirds Senate supermajority this century.
The district covering southwestern Washoe County, which used to favor Republicans but shifted to have a significant Democratic voter registration advantage under the state’s 2021 redistricting process, is open after Sen. Heidi Seevers O’Gara (formerly Seevers Gansert) (R-Reno) announced last year that she would not run for re-election.
Democrat Angie Taylor, a former two-term Washoe County School Board member and one-term assemblywoman, is squaring off against Republican Mike Ginsburg, a Washoe County resident whose family is deeply rooted in the community and who has worked at NV Energy for the past 39 years.
Taylor, the first Black woman to represent a Northern Nevada district in the Assembly, highlighted her experience in the Legislature, expertise in education and track record of working across the aisle with Republicans including Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Growing up, Taylor said she was raised with her two older siblings by their single mother in the projects. She said she was lucky to have a mother who valued education and a community that supported her.
“There are people that have mentored me, that have guided me, that have helped me,” Taylor said. “I have to do something with that.”
Ginsburg notes that his family first moved to the state 110 years ago and that he has been raising his three daughters in the district. He has chaired the City of Reno Parks and Recreation Commission and served two terms on the Neighborhood Advisory Board for the City of Reno’s Ward 1.
Ginsburg said he wants to address the high cost of living and ensure that the Legislature doesn’t have a Democratic supermajority in both chambers that could easily override Lombardo’s vetoes.
“Everything I have done in my volunteer career has been to better this community we live in. Running for Senate District 15 is just an extension of what I already do and have done,” he said.
In separate, in-depth interviews with The Nevada Independent, Taylor and Ginsburg shared what distinguishes them, described how they would approach legislation and answered questions across a wide range of policy areas.
Click here for the full list of questions we asked each candidate and their edited responses.
Education
Taylor said if she could wave a magic wand and make one change to Nevada’s education system, it would be to reduce class sizes, allowing for more individualized attention.
She said the challenge with meeting that need is increasing the number of certified teachers and ensuring that schools have the space to accommodate more classes.
Ginsburg said he would like to see teachers’ salaries increase, better compensating them for the time and resources they put into their classrooms.
Ginsburg said that school discipline “should be left to the school district without interference from the state.” Asked about school discipline changes, Taylor said she’s been addressing the issue, pointing to the bipartisan school safety measure she passed in the 2023 legislative session alongside a complementary bill from Gov. Joe Lombardo that tightened school discipline laws, expanding the ability of schools to suspend or expel students.
The legislation advanced as part of a deal to pass two major budget bills at the end of the 2023 legislative session.
Additionally, Taylor said it’s necessary to identify and address the root causes of behavioral issues leading to the disruption.
Both candidates said they supported increasing the state’s per-pupil funding to bring it in line with the national average, though Ginsburg said his support somewhat depends on where the money is allocated and the accountability measures in place.
Taylor also supports accountability measures, emphasizing that methods of evaluating schools need to focus on proficiency and learning outcomes, not just increased graduation rates.
On the issue of universal free school meals, a topic that has become a political lightning rod after Lombardo vetoed a bill last session that would have continued the pandemic-era program, both candidates’ answers aligned with the stance of their parties.
Taylor said she supported free breakfasts and lunches for all students regardless of family income. Ginsburg said the program needs to be limited to lower-income households and the families that need the meals are already receiving them.
He said he has fears about food waste for kids who don’t need the lunches. Food service officials have pushed back on claims that students from affluent families are taking lunches and then discarding them at high rates.
School choice
Taylor said she supports funding for school choice options that are within Nevada’s public school system, such as magnet schools, International Baccalaureate programs and career and technical education programs.
Once Nevada’s public school system is fully funded, Taylor said lawmakers can discuss school choice options such as state subsidies for private schools.
Ginsburg said a child’s education should not be driven by ZIP codes, and if a parent wants a child to attend a charter school, private school or another education alternative, they should be able to do so.
“A parent shouldn’t have to live across from a school, but have to drive their child 4 miles to another school, because it’s a better school,” Ginsburg said.
He said he supports state subsidies for private schooling but hasn’t decided whether the program should have caps.
States such as Arizona and Florida that help families with private school tuition and have no income limits have racked up massive costs, though Nevada’s Opportunity Scholarship program supporting private school tuition has limited enrollment and an income limit of up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.
Asked whether the nearly 1,000 students who currently receive Opportunity Scholarships should continue to receive them, Taylor did not directly answer the question. She said some of the state funding that went to the program was mismanaged, but there should be enough funding to get the program through the next biennium.
Reproductive rights
Taylor and Ginsburg said they would support legislation protecting the legality of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Nevada. Ginsburg, however, noted that “IVF is not at risk in Nevada, and I believe the government should not find solutions in search of a problem.”
Taylor said she supports Question 6, which would enshrine abortion protections in the Nevada Constitution, and a separate, more expansive proposed constitutional amendment protecting access to a wide variety of reproductive health services, including birth control, abortion and fertility treatments, which is going before legislators in 2025.
“It’s really important that every woman has a right to make the medical decisions that are best for her,” Taylor said. “I think that’s critically important, and that’s what I’m absolutely committed to.”
Ginsburg described the issue of abortion as a “hard and charged issue” and said as the father of three daughters, he’s fought to protect them since they were kids. He did not say whether he would change or expand Nevada’s existing abortion protections, but did say he would support a requirement that parents are notified of their minor child’s abortion.
“The reality is in Nevada, abortion is legal up to six months, and that can’t be changed,” he said. “Abortion is the hardest decision a woman can make — we don’t need to make it harder by politicizing it.”
Taylor said there’s nothing that jumps out to her about the parental notification law that needs to change. Nevada does not require parental notification or consent for minors to obtain an abortion. This is because a federal court struck down Nevada’s parental notification law in 1985, and a 2015 bill to reinstate the law did not pass.
Ginsburg said he needed more time before addressing questions about whether Nevada should fund abortion services through Medicaid or if the state should fund crisis pregnancy centers or nonprofit organizations that provide counseling and other prenatal services from an anti-abortion perspective.
Elections
Taylor, who serves as a caregiver for her 81-year-old mother, said she is opposed to voter ID laws because they disenfranchise older Nevadans and Nevadans of color. She said her mother doesn’t drive and it would be difficult to locate her license or get another identification if it has expired.
“I don’t want anyone to vote who’s not legal to vote, but we don’t have a problem,” Taylor said. “Why would I take a chance on disenfranchising folks for no reason?”
If the ballot measure to implement voter ID laws passes, Taylor said she will ensure her mom can vote, but worries about seniors who don’t have support.
Ginsburg said he believes voter ID is necessary because it would prevent noncitizens from voting and strengthen the state’s election laws. He also cited the broad-ranging support for voter ID based on polling.
Asked about fears that voter ID could create barriers for voting, Ginsburg said he’d like to see reliable data showing that certain voters are disenfranchised by the practice and then would welcome a conversation.
Ginsburg said he did not believe the 2020 election was stolen and “people often combine the stolen election theory with rightful criticism of our election laws.” He said he would support halting automatic voter registration and ending the practice of sending mail ballots to virtually all Nevada voters.
Health care
The high cost of prescription drugs is a problem, according to Taylor, who said senior citizens are choosing between paying their rent and paying for prescription drugs. She said she would support the state adopting prescription drug price caps negotiated by Medicare under the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2023, Lombardo vetoed a proposal to do that.
Ginsburg did not say whether he would support or oppose Medicare-negotiated drug price caps, but he said he would be open to considering the policy as long as it did not negatively affect health care services.
Both candidates emphasized the need to address the state’s health care provider shortage, including by expanding learning and training opportunities for doctors, such as residencies.
Housing
As a swing state with a particularly acute housing crisis, the topic of affordable housing has permeated the election cycle.
Taylor said local governments are often better equipped to address the housing crisis than the state government because the problems are localized by region. One policy that would have an immediate broad effect, she said, is restricting corporate landlords from buying up properties in the state.
A landlord herself, Taylor said that policy wouldn’t target smaller landlords who own two or three homes but larger companies that are buying up significant swaths of properties and keeping families out of the market.
Ginsburg didn’t have a specific policy proposal but said the costs of housing have risen along with the costs of materials and labor, and argued the problem doesn’t lie exclusively with developers who are trying to make a living. He also implied that the Legislature’s push for project labor agreements (a type of collective bargaining agreement for construction projects and a union priority) alongside building projects has contributed to the problem.
Both said Lombardo’s efforts to allocate more federal land to address the housing crunch have the potential to help, but more needs to be done.
The two differed on proposals to amend the state’s rapid and unique summary eviction process. In 2022, Taylor supported a bill requiring a landlord to make the first court filing in an eviction case instead of a tenant and said she would do so again. The bill was later vetoed by Lombardo.
She said it’s an unfair burden on the tenant to begin the legal process.
“I live in a house and I have a rental property, and you hope that helps to create some income or build some wealth,” Taylor said. “The business piece is important. It really is, but the people piece is important, too.”
Ginsburg said he supports the summary eviction process.
Gun policies
Taylor said she has “no interest in taking away people’s guns,” but she wants to make communities and schools safer.
She said she’s open to limits on the sale of semiautomatic weapons. In 2023, she supported a trio of gun control bills later vetoed by Lombardo.
The bills proposed prohibiting access to certain semiautomatic firearms to those younger than 21, criminalizing possession of guns near polling locations, cleaning up a contested state law banning “ghost guns,” and restricting access to guns for those convicted of a hate crime. Taylor said she would support the legislation again.
“I want people to be able to hunt, I want people to do all of that,” Taylor said. “But people will support some restrictions. How far do they go? Don’t know. But absolutely, I would support some restrictions.”
Ginsburg indicated gun control measures are a nonstarter for him.
Tax credits
Taylor said it’s vital any tax credit program benefits all regions of Nevada and gives more to the state than it takes.
Asked about efforts to expand the state’s film tax credits, Taylor said a proposal during the 2023 legislative session focused on Southern Nevada. Taylor said to support a similar measure, she needs to be able to tell Reno-area constituents how they would benefit from it.
“I’m not outright opposed … but I haven’t seen a proposal yet. You hear a little bit of this, little bit of that,” Taylor said.
Ginsburg shared similar sentiments, noting that he wants to ensure “we’re not giving tax credits to people that aren’t going to bring any benefit to the state.”
Taylor, who opposed a public financing package of up to $380 million for a stadium for the Oakland Athletics in Las Vegas, said she stands by her position and didn’t have a single constituent who reached out saying they supported the proposal.
Ginsburg said he wasn’t a legislator at the time, didn’t hear both sides of the issue and wouldn’t weigh in on whether he would have supported the legislation.
