logo
It's normal to be a renter in Nevada. But in the state legislature? Not so much.

It's normal to be a renter in Nevada. But in the state legislature? Not so much.

Yahoo24-02-2025

(Photo courtesy of Nevada Housing Justice Alliance)
Housing is often touted as a crucial 'kitchen table' issue, but for the vast majority of state lawmakers 'home' means a single-family residence they own.
That's true nationally, according to researchers at Boston University and the University of Georgia, who used property records and voter registration data to estimate that at least 93% of officeholders nationwide either own their homes or likely own their homes. It's also true in the Silver State, according to a Nevada Current review of campaign finance reports and property records.
The Current found at least 90% of the 63 members of the Nevada State Legislature are homeowners, and at least 58% own additional real estate, most of them rental units.
That lived experience, combined with the lobbying strength of industries focused on realty and landlords, contributes to the difficulty of passing even modest tenant protections, say advocates.
Homeowners are also more likely to vote, national election surveys and academic studies have found. Politicians worried about their next election cycle no doubt know that.
Before last year's general election, the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance organized a tenant march to the polls. Their message, written on poster boards and running like an undercurrent as they advocated for summary eviction reform and rent stabilization, was clear: 'Your landlord is voting. Are you?'
Nevada's rate of homeownership is lower than the national average, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Four out of 10 housing units are occupied by renters. But renters are not evenly distributed across the state.
The Current compiled available data from 2023 and found that the percentage of renters in Nevada's 63 state legislative districts ranges from 21% to 79%.
Senate District 10, located in the central part of the Las Vegas Valley, has the highest percentage of renters: 70% of occupied units have renters in them and 30% are owner occupied.
Not far behind are Senate District 2, covering much of east Las Vegas, and Senate District 13, covering much of central Reno and Sparks. They have renters living in 67% and 63% of their respective occupied housing units.
All three districts are represented by Democrats: state Sens. Fabian Doñate, Edgar Flores and Skip Daly, respectively.
At the other extreme is Senate District 20, a Henderson district that includes Sun City Anthem and Laughlin. Renters represent only 23% of its occupied units there.
Only slightly better for renters: Senate District 14, which includes a large swath of Northern Nevada's rural counties as well as North Valleys in Reno, and Senate District 19, which covers the rural counties of eastern Nevada and parts of Clark and Nye counties. Those districts have renters in 24% and 26% of respective occupied units.
All three of the most homeowner-heavy districts are represented by Republicans: state Sens. Jeff Stone, Ira Hansen and John Ellison, respectively.
That partisan breakdown of Republicans representing districts with low percentages of renters and Democrats representing districts with high percentages of them is consistent across nearly all state senate districts.
The only outlier in the upper chamber is Senate District 5, a competitive Southern Nevada district covering part of Henderson and Paradise. SD5 is currently represented by Republican Carrie Buck. It ranks in the middle of the pack when it comes to its percentage of renters, with 45% of occupied units containing renters and 55% being owner occupied.
Because each Nevada State Senate district is composed of two Assembly districts, the partisan breakdown of renters largely holds true for the lower chamber. Assembly District 15, covering part of the center of the Las Vegas Valley, has the highest percentage of its housing units occupied by renters: 79%. Assembly District 36, which covers much of Pahrump and a sliver of Clark County, has the mirror opposite: 79% are owner occupied and 21% are occupied by renters.
Pew Research last year released an analysis of national data finding that 'about half of voters who own a home (51%) align with the GOP, while slightly fewer (46%) are Democrats or Democratic leaners.' Meanwhile, voters who rent favor Democrats 2-to-1.
State Sen. Jeff Stone, the Henderson Republican whose district has the lowest percentage of renters, has referred to himself as a 'compassionate landlord' while opposing rent stabilization legislation. He and his wife own nearly seven dozen rental units, according to his most recent financial disclosure form. Most of those units are a part of Enclave Apartments in Las Vegas.
Nevada requires elected officials and political candidates to submit annual financial disclosure forms that list any real property they or someone in their household owns besides their personal residence, but only in states adjacent to Nevada.
Stone is, according to these forms, the most prolific landlord in the Legislature, but he is hardly alone. The Current's review of financial disclosure forms found that one-third of state legislators are rental property owners. That is significantly higher than the population at large where 6.7% of individual tax filers in 2018 reported owning rental properties, according to Pew Research.
The Current found that a majority of Nevada state legislators -- 12 of 21 senators and 25 of 42 assemblymembers -- own some kind of property not used as their personal residence. Because elected officials are only required to disclose property in Nevada and adjacent states, this could be an undercount.
Most of the properties disclosed by legislators are described by them simply as rentals. Five lawmakers list vacation homes or timeshares. A few list homes occupied by a parent, child or other family member. One assemblymember owns two commercial shopping centers. Another owns several plots of undeveloped land.
Being a landlord and supporting pro-tenant legislation are not mutually exclusive. During the 2019 and 2022 Legislative Sessions, then-state Sen. Julia Ratti, a Democrat who represented a renter-heavy district in Reno, championed legislation to give renters more rights and protections. She spoke about being a landlord herself, and her financial disclosure forms from those years list her owning two rental properties.
Still, having more lived and current experience could help elevate such issues, say advocates.
Assemblymember Cecelia González, a Las Vegas Democrat whose district is 60% rental units, is one of few legislators who doesn't own their own home. She has been outspoken about the impact of rapidly rising rent prices since the covid pandemic -- an issue housing advocates say has gotten worse since temporary protections for renters ended.
In 2023, she posted on social media: '3 years ago I first signed my lease for $950. Today it is $1450…. And I truly don't know how I am going to afford rent.'
Last year, González, a K-12 educator and doctoral candidate, mused about doing gig work for a food delivery company: 'I can't believe I am door dashing right now to afford rent. Just, wow.'
'I've been very vocal about my lived experience,' she told the Current. 'I'm not from a wealthy family, not from generations of wealth. I talk about DoorDashing to supplement income, or trying to buy a home and being priced out.'
She elaborated: 'I was asked, 'How much are your parents gifting you?' Like that was just a normal thing, to give you $50,000 as a downpayment. It was unreal to me.'
González said she believes the Legislature is getting more diverse and is welcoming of informed perspectives. She points to the election of Democratic Assemblymember Jovan Jackson, who last year became the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the body.
'Those conversations change' when those voices are included, she added.
But whether that will lead to actual policy changes is a far more complicated equation. González points to renter protection bills, such as rent stabilization for seniors, that were vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2023.
'The Legislature did their work,' she said. 'He vetoed. He'll have to answer to that in the 2026 election.'
Many of those policy proposals are expected to return in this year's session.
Tenant advocates know they'll have to compete for attention against housing bills that focus on homeownership and not renters.
'(There is) a push for homeownership as the end all, be all, the whole path and the whole expectation,' says Ben Iness, the coalition coordinator for the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance. 'Embedded within that is the perpetuation of the supply narrative. That (struggles are) only happening because there is a shortage and if we can just build then things will level out and be fine.'
It is a myopic view, he adds, and pushing for pro-tenant policies can sometimes 'feel like the pariah or black sheep of housing work' because of it.
Iness believes that renter protections are important regardless of whether a housing market that centers single-family homes is hot or cold.
'Being a renter or tenant is not fringe,' he says. 'I hope that there's a lot of power in recognizing that.'
Nevada Current reporter Michael Lyle contributed to this article.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

'Yeah, I've changed': Former Republican congressman runs as Democrat for governor
'Yeah, I've changed': Former Republican congressman runs as Democrat for governor

Yahoo

time36 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

'Yeah, I've changed': Former Republican congressman runs as Democrat for governor

A former GOP congressman turned MSNBC commentator made his pitch for Florida's governorship in next year's election at a packed town hall meeting on June 9 at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. 'Yeah, I've changed,' said David Jolly, and he wants his Republican opponents to make that the centerpiece of their attacks against him. During the 90-minute moderated discussion, Jolly positioned himself as a candidate who can bridge political divides and appeal across party lines in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic governor in over three decades. Next November's election will be a battle for what will be an open seat as Gov. Ron DeSantis is term limited according to Florida's constitution. Jolly's political evolution spans what he describes as 'a period of about 10 years,' moving from registered Republican to independent to Democrat. The attorney and former lobbyist served as the Republican representative in the 13th congressional district in Southwest Florida from 2014 to 2017 before leaving Congress. Now a network political contributor, he frames his party switches as an asset. 'I want my opponents to hit me on change. 'Jolly changed.' Yeah, I did,' he said. 'Is it okay to change your mind? I think it is, and that's part of my story.' Then he pointedly added: 'You know who else has changed? Most elected Republicans have changed.' During his time as a Republican congressman, Jolly said he supported positions that put him at odds with his party as it tilted toward President Donald Trump's America first and Make America Great Again movement, which Jolly has lambasted in network appearances. 'I was a Republican in Congress who supported marriage equality, climate science, gun control, campaign finance reform,' he told The Palm Beach Post. One of Trump's most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill, Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, has already entered the race on the GOP side. The Naples congressman has the president's endorsement. Whoever the GOP nominee is will count on the party's more than 1 million-plus voter advantage over the rival Democrats. Not boding well for Jolly, either, is that the last Democratic nominee for governor, Charlie Crist, a former congressman who also was a Republican-turned-Democrat, got trounced by DeSantis in a nearly 20-point rout in November 2022. Jolly is centering his campaign on what he calls Florida's 'generational affordability crisis.' 'This is a lived experience for my wife and I. We have two young children, and I am not confident that our incumbent in Tallahassee or that the next Republican candidate for governor understands the urgency of it or a desire to fix it,' he said. This crisis transcends party lines, he argued. 'The affordability crisis doesn't know party. If you're a Democrat, independent, Republican, you're worried about your homeowners insurance, your rent, property taxes,' Jolly said His proposed solutions include a state catastrophic fund to remove hurricane and natural disaster coverage from private insurance markets. It is a proposal Jolly told the crowd that he offered in national scope during his term in Washington. 'In Congress, I introduced a national cap fund to aggregate fires out west, tornadoes in the midwest, ice in the northeast, hurricanes in the southwest into a national cap fund," he said. "It didn't pass. Republicans at the time called it socialism, I just called it cheaper insurance.' He said the fund could cut private insurance for homeowners by 50% to 60%. His platform includes education reform and social issues. He argues that 'public education has been abandoned in the state of Florida' and calls for ending what he calls 'culture wars' that target immigrant and marginalized communities. 'We have excellence today in public education only out of the sheer will and determination of public school teachers and administrators,' Jolly said. 'Politicians have tried to tell them how to teach, what to teach, what they can say. We don't respect them with pay, we don't respect them politically, and we need to be a state that celebrates public education.' At the town hall, he expanded on his social agenda. 'We have to return to a place where everyone is welcome and celebrated,' Jolly said at the town hall. 'Regardless of where you were born, the color of your skin, who you love or who you worship, we need to be a state that welcomes everyone and lifts everyone up.' On reproductive rights, Jolly supports leaving the decision up to the majority of voters, pointing to the support Florida's Amendment 4 on abortion received in November 2024. 'More than 50% of the state said they wanted it. There's no reason politicians in Tallahassee should stand in the way,' he said. The amendment received 57% support but failed to reach the required 60% threshold. The FAU event, moderated by political strategist Simon Rosenberg, drew supporters from across Florida, including some who drove from Sarasota, Fla., to hear Jolly speak. 'Bring sanity back,' said attendee and Sarasota resident Michele Zinser. 'I think [Jolly] is very calm. He listens, and I appreciate that.' Zinser, an independent, resonates with Jolly's mission to tackle the affordability crisis. 'I know he doesn't come in with a strong right-wing agenda, which is what we've been suffering in Sarasota county,' she said. 'I'm about to become a democrat, I'm afraid.' Scott Benarde, a registered Democrat, event sponsor and frequent watcher of MSNBC, attended to show support for Jolly. 'I really believe in this guy, I think he's knowledgeable, decent, honest and cares and knows what the heck he's talking about. I think he really has a shot of becoming Florida's next governor,' said Scott Benarde, a registered Democrat and event sponsor. Attendees emphasized how Jolly's Republican background could appeal to voters tired of current leadership. 'He was a Republican. He understands the republican party probably better than a lot of Democrats,' said Betsey Hull, who attended with concerns about affordable housing for her daughters. 'We need somebody that will unite the state.' With 16 months until the election, Jolly reports early conversations with national Democratic Party leadership about potential support, while working to build relationships with diverse communities across the state, including Black pastors in Orlando, Fla. 'A year from now, we'll be working with each other towards change,' he said. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: AT FAU, David Jolly embraces political shift in bid for Florida governor

Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that ‘went too far'
Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that ‘went too far'

Boston Globe

time42 minutes ago

  • Boston Globe

Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that ‘went too far'

Musk earlier deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president's association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an 'abomination' and claimed credit for Trump's election victory, remained live. Advertisement On Sunday, Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face " serious consequences " if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that 'went too far'
Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that 'went too far'

San Francisco Chronicle​

timean hour ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

Elon Musk backs off from feud with Trump, saying he regrets social media posts that 'went too far'

Elon Musk stepped back from his explosive feud with U.S. President Donald Trump, writing on X that he regrets some of his posts about his onetime ally and that they went 'too far.' Early Wednesday morning, he posted 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.' Musk's break with a president whom he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect appeared to put an end to his influence in the White House and prompted concerns about effects on his companies. As a major government contractor, Musk's businesses could be particularly vulnerable to retribution, and Trump has already threatened to cut Musk's contracts. Musk earlier deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president's association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an 'abomination' and claimed credit for Trump's election victory, remained live. On Sunday, Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face ' serious consequences ' if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store