Two candidates with ties to Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that has advocated for book bans and against policies that accommodate LGBTQ+ students, won their races on the Clark County School Board.

The growing conservative influence is part of significant turnover on a board where three trustees did not seek re-election. They’ll help shape the future of the Clark County School District (CCSD), which faces budgetary challenges and a superintendent search that is on hiatus until after the new trustees are sworn in. 

Here’s a look at election results for Clark and Washoe county school boards, as well as the Nevada State Board of Education and the Board of Regents, which governs higher education.

Washoe County School Board

District G

Washoe County Trustee Diane Nicolet and tech businessman Perry Rosenstein are locked in a tight race for the school board’s District G seat. Preliminary results Wednesday show Nicolet holding a lead of less than 1.5 percentage points. (Click here for the most up-to-date results.)

Nicolet was elected to the board in 2020. She’s a longtime educator who has worked in early education through higher education. Nicolet was supported by current and former school board members, including Trustee Colleen Westlake. 

The at-large District G covers the western portion of Washoe County and includes Incline Village. Voters in geographical Districts A, C, D and E voted in the race.

Clark County School Board

District A

Emily Stevens, vice president of business development for SCE Credit Union, has won the Clark County School Board’s District A race.

Stevens, who is active on high school boards and a UNLV committee on financial literacy, defeated Karl Catarata, a charter school board member and Nevada state director for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon showed Stevens ahead of Catarata by more than 16 percentage points.   

District A includes parts of Henderson as well as Boulder City, Searchlight and Laughlin. The seat is currently held by Trustee Lisa Guzman who didn’t run for re-election. 

District B

Former Moms for Liberty Clark County chapter member Lydia Dominguez has won in the school board’s District B race. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, Dominguez had a double-digit lead over her opponent, Eileen Eady, a former teacher turned political consultant. 

District B includes parts of the northwestern Las Vegas Valley, Indian Springs, Bunkerville and the Moapa area. 

The seat was previously held by former Trustee Katie Williams, who resigned in September after an investigation found she was living out of state. 

Last week, the school board voted to appoint Nakia Jackson-Hale to the seat for the remainder of Williams’ term, which ends in early January. Dominguez, who serves on the district’s Attendance Zone Advisory Committee, had applied for the position prior to the election. 

District C

Tameka Henry, the executive director of an anti-poverty nonprofit organization, is leading in the District C race against Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales, the incumbent. 

The district includes parts of central Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. 

With preliminary results showing Henry leading by less than 5 percentage points, the contest was still too close to call as of Wednesday afternoon.

Garcia Morales has faced multiple calls to resign, most recently for the district’s budget issues. 

District E

Former local Moms for Liberty chapter member Lorena Biassotti (Cardenas) has won the Clark County School Board District E race against Kamilah Bywaters, a former CCSD teacher and leader of a group advocating for Black students.

Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon showed Biassotti ahead by almost 20 percentage points. 

District E, which includes western parts of the Las Vegas Valley and Summerlin, is represented by Trustee Lola Brooks, who isn’t running for re-election. 

State Board of Education 

District 1

Former New York City police officer turned educator Tricia Braxton has won the District 1 race for the Nevada State Board of Education against Tim Underwood, a former senior advisor of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty,

Preliminary results as of Wednesday morning show Braxton with a lead of almost 20 percentage points. 

The District 1 seat was previously held by board member Tim Hughes, who ran this year for the District 4 seat because of redistricting. 

District 1 stretches from the southeastern part of Las Vegas to Henderson and Boulder City. 

Since the Moms for Liberty chapter’s launch last year, its members, including Underwood, have pushed for book bans and opposed a Clark County School District’s policy related to transgender students. 

District 2

Board Member Angela Orr, a Reno charter school principal, has won the District 2 race against Paul Davis, a professor who teaches courses on political science and international terrorism at Truckee Meadows Community College and UNLV. 

Orr was appointed to the state board by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2023. 

Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon show Orr with a 5-digit lead. 

The geographically massive district includes Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing, Storey, Washoe and White Pine counties, as well as parts of Lincoln and Lyon counties. 

District 3

Former CCSD trustee Danielle Ford is leading in the District 3 race against René Cantú, a current state board member.

The incumbent, Felicia Ortiz, didn’t run for re-election.

Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon show Ford with a lead of about 3 percentage points, making the race too close to call. 

Cantú ran for a different seat on the board because of redistricting. He’s the founding executive director of Jobs for Nevada's Graduates, a nonprofit organization established in 2014 that helps students meet graduation and career goals. 

Ford is a former trustee turned podcast host. She’s a Nevada native, former CCSD student and has two adult children who went through CCSD schools.

Ford served on the Clark County School Board from 2019 to 2023, and lost her bid for re-election in 2022 against former Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams. 

District 3 encompasses parts of Las Vegas and Henderson. 

Board of Regents

District 1

Carlos Fernandez, the executive director of the American Institute of Architects, and a former lobbyist for the Las Vegas Chamber, has won the race for District 1.

He defeated Matthew Bowen, a sales professional with experience as an insurance agent and financial planning, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Primarily results as of Wednesday afternoon show Fernandez ahead by more than 10 percentage points. 

The seat is currently held by Regent Laura Perkins. Perkins opted not to seek re-election and ran for state Senate District 4, but lost in a primary. 

District 1 encompasses the northeastern Las Vegas Valley. 

District 4

Aaron Bautista, a special education teacher at Mater Academy Mountain Vista, a K-8 charter school in east Las Vegas, is leading in the District 4 race against Tonia Holmes-Sutton, the chair of the State Public Charter School Authority’s board. 

Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon show Bautista ahead by more than 10 percentage points. 

Bautista has also worked at Legacy Traditional Schools and CCSD. He serves on the city of Las Vegas’ Neighborhood Partners Fund Board and Our Future East Las Vegas Advisory Board. 

Holmes-Sutton previously served on the State Board of Education in a governor-appointed position and is a former CCSD teacher, former executive director of Teach Plus Nevada and a national board certified teacher.

The District 4 seat in East Las Vegas is currently held by Regent Donald Sylvantee McMichael, who lost in the June primary after he faced backlash for comments he made at a board meeting regarding Jewish students. 

District 12

The District 12 incumbent Amy Carvalho, the board chair, defeated Jonathan Maxham, a doctor of osteopathic medicine in Henderson. 

Preliminary results as of Wednesday afternoon show Carvalho ahead by almost 20 percentage points. 

District 12 includes parts of Henderson and stretches into Boulder City.