Former Nevada lawmakers nab most votes in school board, regent races

Three former lawmakers are the top vote getters in their respective Clark County School Board and Board of Regents races, according to preliminary election results as of Wednesday afternoon that show two have a chance to win their seats outright in the primary.

In Nevada, some nonpartisan races — including the Clark County School Board and the Board of Regents — can be decided in the primary if a candidate gets a simple majority (50 percent plus one) of the votes. If no candidate reaches that threshold, then the two top candidates advance to the general election. 

Meanwhile, two Washoe County School Board incumbents faced no opponents in the primary, and scored an easy win. 

Clark County School Board 

Trustee Irene Bustamante Adams is leading in the three-way District F race but was just shy of the 50 percent mark on Wednesday. She has about 50 percent more votes than her next closest competitor, Robert Hutchinson, a facility director for the Clark County School District. If she does not hold on to a simple majority as more votes trickle in, Bustamante Adams and Hutchinson will continue on to the general election.  

The former Democratic state lawmaker was elected to the Clark County School Board in 2022 after defeating the former trustee, Danielle Ford.

Bustamante Adams' endorsements include the politically powerful Clark County Education Association (CCEA), the official bargaining unit for the district's teachers. Hutchinson is backed by CCEA's rival union, the Nevada State Education Association. 

In a distant third in the race is Laurence Neely, a Turning Point Action manager and husband to Erica Neely, who unsuccessfully ran for the District F seat in 2022 and is projected to win this year's Republican primary for Assembly District 9. He was endorsed by the conservative Moms for Liberty Clark County chapter, which has pushed for book bans and opposed district policies that support LGBTQ+ students. 

With only two candidates each, the District D race featuring Trustee Brenda Zamora and nonprofit leader David Gomez, and District G race featuring Trustee Linda Cavazos and business owner/substitute teacher Paul Casey, did not appear on primary ballots and will be decided in the general election. 

Board of Regents

Nevada higher education Regent Patrick Boylan is trailing behind three other candidates in the District 5 race, including  former state lawmaker Mo Denis (D-Las Vegas) and Stephanie Molina, a program coordinator at Nevada State University, according to election results as of mid-day Wednesday. 

Boylan faced calls to resign after referred to female transgender athletes as "men masquerading as women."

Denis said Boylan's comments were part of the reason he decided to run for the board, which governs the Nevada System of Higher Education. Regent terms last six years.

District 5 includes parts of East Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, which has a large Hispanic population.

Other regents on the primary ballot appeared safe. Former state lawmaker Pete Goicoechea (R-Eureka) is leading in District 8, followed by Lori Lane, an entertainment professional. 

Goicoechea was appointed to the board by Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2024 to replace Michelee Cruz-Crawford after she was elected to the state Senate. 

In the District 2 race, incumbent Jennifer McGrath, an attorney, is leading the District 2 race followed by Patrick Villa, a math professor at the College of Southern Nevada.

Goicoechea and McGrath each have vote totals hovering around 50 percent. If they secure a simple majority, they'll win the race outright in the primary. If not they'll have to run in the general election. 

The District 3 and District 10 races skipped the primary election because they only featured two candidates. Incumbents Byron Brooks and Joseph Arrascada are defending their seats against lone challenges Erik Swendseid, an architect, and Peter Reed, director of UNR's Sanford Center for Aging. 

Washoe County School Board

Trustees Colleen Westlake and James Phoenix, who represent District B and C respectively, are retaining their seats on the Washoe County School Board as both incumbents ran unopposed.

District B includes Sun Valley and areas of Sparks. District C includes North Valleys, Spanish Springs, Natchez and Gerlach. 

This will be Westlake's second term as a trustee and Phoenix's first time being elected to the role after being appointed in 2025, replacing Joe Rodriguez after the former trustee was elected to the Sparks City Council. 

In her next term, Westlake plans to advocate for more school police officers if there's funding available, explore ideas to reduce class sizes, preserve recess time and consider whether the district should reduce students' screen time. 

The trustee also wants to urge lawmakers during the 2027 legislative session to allow students to get additional per pupil-funding if they fall in more than one of the following categories: English learner, at-risk, gifted and talented and special education. Currently, the formula limits qualifying students to the weighted funding category that provides them a greatest level of additional funds on top of the standard base per-pupil funding all students receive. 

"We're not getting funded enough to meet the special needs of all of these children," Westlake said.

In the District F race, cannabis entrepreneur Brooke Westlake (no relation to Colleen Westlake) and UNR adjunct professor Sheena Harvey are advancing to the general election to replace outgoing board President Adam Mayberry, who is projected to win outright in the Sparks City Council Ward 4 race.

Brooke Westlake previously ran for the seat in 2022, but lost in the primary. 

Brooke Westlake said in a Wednesday interview she was motivated to run because she is concerned about the district's quality of education, having felt unprepared for college after graduating from the district herself and watching her own son, a high school student, struggle. She said she thinks the school board does not listen to parents' concerns on issues such as books that they consider to contain themes related to sexuality. 

"You constantly have parents pulling their kids out," she said. "That's because they're not being heard."

Harvey's endorsements include the Nevada State Education Association and the local affiliate, the Washoe Education Association. Brooke Westlake's endorsements include the Washoe County Republican Party Central Committee. 

District F covers the eastern part of the county, including Sparks and parts of central and south Reno.