Restauranteur faces union negotiator in open Assembly District 12 seat

A restaurateur and a union negotiator are competing for the support of voters on the east side of the Las Vegas Valley in the November election for Assembly District 12.

Republican Flemming Larsen and Democrat Max Carter II are competing for the seat left vacant by incumbent Assemblywoman Susie Martinez, who was elected executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO in August 2021.

Democrats hold a slight registration advantage in the district with about 16,000 active voters compared to Republicans’ 10,400, according to state-compiled data from August.

Both Larsen and Carter beat out several other candidates in their parties’ respective primaries. Larsen received 46.4 percent of the vote against four other Republican candidates. Carter received 53 percent of the vote against two other Democratic candidates.

Flemming Larsen

Larsen, a California native who moved to Nevada about a decade ago, said he’s always had an eye for office but chose to run this cycle because he sees his new home state aligning more like his old one.

“Everything’s getting so expensive,” he said. “When we moved here everything was inexpensive and relatively affordable.”

Larsen said he’s motivated to limit government “overspending” to address inflation, in part by using his business experience. Larsen and his wife, April, own Larsen’s Restaurant Group, a chain of Southern California and Las Vegas restaurants and steakhouses.

His experience is what’s behind one policy proposal to encourage economic diversity in the state: repealing the commerce tax, imposed on businesses with gross revenue in Nevada that exceeds $4 million in a taxable year.

“If we really want to compete against China and really want to compete against other states, we really gotta look at the commerce tax,” he said.

Larsen said he also wants to keep qualified immunity in place for police officers and improve public safety by financially supporting police departments. He supports harsher penalties for certain crimes and repeat offenders, and wants to limit the types of crimes that allow people to leave jail on their own recognizance.

“I want to really make it tough for criminals when they set foot in the state knowing that, ‘hey, listen, you’re going to be going away for a long time if you commit these kinds of crimes in our state,’” he said.

Larsen said he also supports imposing school choice policies and measures that would offer “outside the box” solutions to the ongoing water crisis.

Max Carter II

Democrat Carter did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.