Nevada Democrats praise women’s progress, denounce Trump

Nevada Democratic leaders gathered Tuesday for a virtual watch party prior to the second night of the Democratic National Convention, and speakers keyed in on the role of women in politics on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States.

“It is our destiny to get on the battlefield with our daughters and to fight for an America that includes and respects our children,” said Assemblywoman Dina Neal, the first Black woman elected to the Nevada State Assembly.

Neal urged women to rally against President Donald Trump, saying women as a whole “revoke our consent to be governed by this president.”

“It is in our declaration and the agency of our body that we will no longer be bystanders while this nation gets ripped apart by self-serving demagogues,” Neal said.

Rep. Susie Lee called for Nevadans to help elect an ally who will take up a wave of Democratic legislation passed in the House but rebuffed by Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate.

“We can not afford another four years of division and partisanship and blatant disregard for our Constitution,” Lee said.

Trump’s campaign has declined to comment on the watch parties, which began Monday and will continue through Thursday.

Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine said Trump has worked to shift blame for the COVID-19 pandemic as the state’s residents and economy have suffered immensely.

“Now, we’ve got a chance to get this public health emergency right and get out of this economic downturn, but we can not do it alone,” Conine said. “We need additional support at the federal level, and that means electing Joe Biden as the next president of these United States.”

Assemblywoman Selena Torres, who was 23-year-old when she was elected in 2018, urged young Democrats to be heard in the upcoming election.

Torres, the daughter of an El Salvadoran immigrant, also asked Democrats to reject Republicans up and down the ballot due to “rhetoric that immigrants don’t deserve a chance at the American Dream.”

“It is time we elect a president who understands the positive contributions that immigrants like my father have had on our community,” she said. “A president that will work with his vice president (California Sen. Kamala Harris), the daughter of immigrants, to create a compassionate, common-sense immigration solution.”

Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, called on her fellow Democrats to fight Republican support of the gun lobby, in this election and beyond. Jauregui is a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest shooting and authored the state’s most recent gun safety laws.

“You must stay engaged throughout the next four years and every year after that to ensure that elected officials in every seat of power and every branch of government know that fundamental change — from protecting voting rights to combating climate change to enacting common-sense gun safety reform — is a demand of the American people,” she said.

Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.