4 Republicans fighting to challenge Jauregui in AD41
Four Republicans are competing to represent Assembly District 41, which covers parts of the southwest Las Vegas Valley including Enterprise, Paradise and Henderson. The district is currently represented by Democratic Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, who is serving her third term and is known for advocating for better gun safety.
Paul Bodine
Paul Bodine, a sales and marketing director, is making his political debut. He’s been a poll worker for several elections, but over the last year he started to become more involved in politics such as attending local Republican meetings.
“Every morning part of my prayer says, ‘Thank you that we live in this country. That we have freedom and opportunities to pursue our dreams and goals and to protect and preserve those freedoms and opportunities for the next generation,’” Bodine said. “I just started feeling like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m praying this and I’m not doing anything about it.’”
His biggest focus would be to try and curtail the ability of a governor to implement emergency executive orders, citing the temporary shutdown of casinos and businesses in March 2020 to curb the spread of the coronavirus as well as the state’s mask mandate.
“I was really concerned about the way things were made arbitrarily in terms of lockdowns and shutdowns in our state,” he said.
Asked which political figure he most admires, Bodine said Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis but settled on Winston Churchill, mentioning that he’s currently reading Churchill’s biography by the late British historian Martin Gilbert.
“He’s influential and impressive to me in terms of a politician and a person overall,” he said.
Guadalupe Reyes
Realtor Guadalupe Reyes became so frustrated with the Clark County School District that it prompted her to run for office for the first time. Reyes has a son who will be entering middle school and said over the years the district has become worse.
“I don’t think the current elected officials are even listening to us parents or the community,” Reyes said.
Her hope is to work with colleagues to pass legislation around education such as school vouchers.
“I believe the tax dollars should follow the child, not the school,” she said. “It’s not just going to private school, it’s any type of school. If your child wants to be homeschooled that money should go to that child for whatever their education needs.”
She added that whether she is in the political minority or majority her focus would be on doing what’s best for her district.
“I definitely would not just vote on party lines just because they suggest this is the way I should vote,” Reyes said. “I would go to what’s important to my community and what they’re telling me is important to them. Because I think our elected officials are just totally going with party lines and not listening to Nevadans.”
Candidate Tawny Rittenbaugh could not be reached for comment for this story, and candidate James Slater did not return requests for comment.
Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.