Environment

Read an Op-Ed I wrote for the Reno Gazette-Journal that has even more in-depth information.

We are dealing with vast and quickly-changing environmental challenges. If we are not on the cutting edge of managing the climate crisis, the cost to our state and communities will continue to be devastating and increasingly out of our control.

In the 2021 legislative session, Sarah was proud to be the primary sponsor of AB146 which protects Nevada’s water resources, including groundwater, as well as AB148 which holds mining industry bad actors accountable.

This is Sarah’s background and training. She works with local, Tribal, state and federal governments on toxic waste (Superfund) site management, and monitoring; regulatory issues; planning and technical support including cost control; and general environmental consulting.

Supporting Working Families

Sarah is focused on ways that we can support working families. These include raising the minimum wage, strengthening the ability of Nevada small businesses to compete for state and local contracts, and more career and technical education to build up our skilled trades. As a testament to her commitment to support working families, Sarah is proud to have the endorsement of the Nevada State AFL-CIO and Northern Nevada Central Labor Council for her campaign.

Supporting working families is more than this, as well. It includes addressing public education, housing costs, healthcare, and much more. Families need places to play and enjoy our beautiful wilderness. Sarah is proud to have been endorsed by the Nevada Conservation League and Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter for her focus on conservation and protection of our natural resources.

Education

We must address the continued shortfalls for our public education systems. These include funding shortfalls, lack of enough qualified teachers, and far too many tests are just some of the issues we need to address. Sarah’s children are all in elementary school: this challenge is personal and urgent for her and her family.

Marijuana funding must be used to increase education funding, not simply take the place (“supplant”) other sources of funding as is currently the case. This funding was voted on to add to public education funding, and it should.

Sarah is supportive of public charter schools, but strongly opposed to public tax dollars funding private and religious schools, especially in any kind of voucher or education savings account form. While Sarah believes that choice in education is important, she believes that public tax dollars should be used to support schools that everyone can attend.

School safety is a major issue facing us, and Sarah is committed to making our schools safer. She believes that will be accomplished with more funding for teachers and counselors, smaller class sizes, and more focus on arts, physical education, and music (and less testing). She believes that schools should be safe, but not concrete bunkers.

Sarah was proud to have worked to pass the largest education budget in Nevada State history. However, more work is to be done to address our education system such as finding and retaining teachers, increasing mental health professionals  and counselors in schools, and continuing to invest into pre-k programs, so that all our kids have a strong start to their education.

Sarah has held large corporations accountable and made them pay their fair share to add record levels of funding to our education system.

Health Care

Sarah is a strong advocate for health care and believes we must continue to increase access to healthcare and bring down costs for Nevada families.

In 2021, Sarah was the primary sponsor of AB181 which requires mental health coverage parity and establishes data collection efforts to ensure we are sending resources to the right people, at the right place, at the right time. In 2019 she helped pass AB 496 to protect consumers from surprise billing from out-of-network providers. As a member of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee, she has also fought hard to prioritize reproductive and maternal health.

Equality

As a professional woman in a STEM field, Sarah has faced gender equality issues personally and head on. As a state legislator, she sees equality as a guiding principle. She helped to pass SJR 8, which will send the Equal Rights Amendment to a vote of the people this November to codify it in the Nevada Constitution. She also voted in favor of SB 293, which prohibits employers from requiring prospective employees to reveal their previous salary history.

Sarah has also been a proud member and ally of the LGBTQIA+ community since she was 16, and in 2021 she came out as pansexual on the floor of the Assembly – becoming only the third legislator in the US (and the first in Nevada) to do so. She recognizes that although Nevada has made unprecedented progress in being a more equitable home for our LGBTQIA+ community, they continue to encounter barriers and face discrimination in daily life that will persist without continued intervention.

If elected to a third term, she will continue to fight for equal rights for all, and continue to include and promote the voices and perspectives of people and communities of color.

Gun Control

Over the two terms Sarah has been in office, the Nevada Legislature fought hard to pass common sense gun control measures such as AB 286 which banned untraceable “ghost guns,” and AB 291 which banned bump stocks and implemented Extreme Risk Protection Orders to keep firearms out of the hands of potentially violent criminals

Women’s Rights

Sarah has stood up for women and passed legislation that expanded access to reproductive health care and passed laws banning employers from asking women for their previous salary, which fosters equal pay for equal work. Sarah is committed to standing up to the extremist GOP supreme court and fight to protect women’s reproductive rights across Nevada.

Housing Costs

Access to affordable housing is an incredibly important issue facing our great state. Rising housing costs are a burden to so many hardworking Nevadan families. Every Nevadan deserves a safe, affordable, comfortable place to home. Decent, affordable housing is a basic right for everybody and brings stability, economic diversity, and overall improves the physical quality of our communities.