As in legislative sessions past, The Nevada Independent is publishing a series of profiles featuring the new lawmakers in the state. This is the 12th installment of more than a dozen on new legislators' backgrounds, interests and policy positions.

• Freshman Democrat born in Las Vegas succeeds Democratic Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen, who was appointed to the state Senate representing District 3
• Appointed to represent District 10, which includes portions of the central Las Vegas Valley west of Interstate 15 and along either side of Sahara Avenue 
• District 10 leans Democratic (38 percent of active voters were registered Democratic, 21 percent were Republican, 33 percent were nonpartisan and 8 percent were registered to other parties in the 2022 election).
• She will sit on these committees: Health and Human Services, Judiciary, and Legislative Operations and Elections.

Family and education

Sabra, pronounced “SAY-bruh,” Newby, 46, is a third-generation Southern Nevada resident whose grandfather moved to Las Vegas to work at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s.

While attending Bishop Gorman High School, she said she volunteered for Meals on Wheels and later attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts to study government, following in the footsteps of her “she-ro” Hillary Clinton, who is an alumnus.

“I was raised with the belief that you needed to do what you could for your community and for your country,” Newby said. “As long as I can remember, I have wanted to go into public service.”

Newby later went to Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and earned a master's of public policy in 2001. She said she was a campus activist and participated in student government during her undergraduate studies.

She said the most transformational class she took in college was focused on leadership. For a graduate school group project, she worked with the federal government on the Paperwork Reduction Act, a law designed to reduce paperwork the government requires from businesses and citizens.

“I think being at Harvard really opened up whole universes for me,” Newby said, “and gave me a sense of the possibility of what we could do.”

Newby met her husband, Craig Newby, at Harvard University, where he was a law student. Craig Newby is the first assistant attorney general of Nevada, and they have two sons from their 18-year marriage. 

In her spare time, she enjoys ​traveling, gardening, exploring the outdoors and cooking.

Career

Newby got her start in government in 2002 at the Las Vegas neighborhood services department, which focused on homelessness and bringing communities together to provide support services.

She said in 2005, she was asked to lobby during the legislative session on behalf of the city. In 2007 and 2009, she lobbied for Clark County after moving over from the city.

“It's really there where I caught the bug for policymaking,” Newby said.

She advanced from department director to chief administrative officer, then assistant county manager at Clark County. 

In 2017, when Reno’s city manager resigned because of accusations of sexual harassment that were later resolved through a settlement, Newby applied for the position and was hired. She resigned in 2020 after becoming homesick and accepted a position with UNLV as the vice president of government and community affairs.

Newby was nominated for the Assembly seat by Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) and the recommendation was accepted by Clark County commissioners, who have the final say. She is on unpaid leave from her job at UNLV, and the university has Constance Brooks serving as the interim vice president of government and community engagement.

Profile

Newby said she has increasingly considered taking a greater role in policymaking and politics, feeling the need to make a difference in the world.

She said the pull became stronger because of the “tone of the country” and the partisanship displayed over the last couple of years.

“I don't know that there's anything particularly unique about this session versus others,” Newby said about entering the chamber with the new title of assemblywoman rather than lobbyist. “It's more about my evolution of thought into how I can better serve my state and my community.”

She said the older she gets, the more she understands that government and policymaking is “reliant on people to step up and do what they can.”

Newby said recent political strategies have “degraded” and sunk to a place in which the priority seems to be getting people in an uproar rather than developing policies to help communities.

Education, mental health and civic dialogue are the issues that she finds most concerning in Nevada. 

She said the effects of climate change on shrinking Lake Mead and the growth of wildfires in Northern Nevada are also concerns.

On the issues

Because Newby was appointed to her position, she is only authorized to introduce one bill this session. 

She said the bill, AB225, seeks to protect personal information, such as addresses of military personnel, by shielding it from public records. The bill was spurred by someone she knows who she said is on “the kill list” for al-Qaida, a militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden in the 1980s.

“We've always been supportive of the nation and our national defense,” Newby said about Nevada. “And we as a state should be supportive of the safety of those who keep us safe.”

This story was updated at 8:50 a.m. to reflect that Newby is 46 years old, not 47, and that she was in student government in undergraduate school, not graduate school.