Washoe County's top prosecutor has a challenger for the first time. It's getting messy.

For the first time in a decade, Washoe County's top prosecutor has a challenger — and it's led to personal attacks, allegations of nepotism and carpetbagging as well as disputes over whether Nevada's second largest county is getting safer.

District Attorney Chris Hicks (R) is squaring off against Sparks City Attorney Wes Duncan (R) in the June primary. Because they are the only candidates, the winner of the primary will automatically win the general election.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have poured into the race. Hicks — endorsed by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) — raised much more money in 2026, but Duncan has a slight advantage in his bank account.

The Washoe County district attorney holds considerable sway in charging and plea bargaining policies and sets the overall expectations of the county's judicial system. The office has four divisions (Criminal, Civil, Family Support, and Administration) and employs more than 170 prosecutors, attorneys, legal support staff, investigators and victim advocates.

And how well Hicks has fulfilled those responsibilities has been at the core of the race.

In late 2022, Hicks rolled out a new plea bargaining and charging policy that expects defendants to plead guilty to the most serious charge they face, or agree to go to trial. It also limits prosecutors to only charging suspects they can prove committed crimes "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Because fewer people are pleading guilty, there has been a surge in criminal trials — which critics say bogs down the judicial system — and an increase in decisions to not charge suspects who have been arrested.

"Instead of having the humility to change course or to try to course correct, the district attorney's continuing to pursue that policy," Duncan said in an interview. "So I think it's wrongheaded, I think it endangers our community, and it'll be the first order of business when I become the next district attorney to change it."

Hicks defends the policy as practical.

"I cannot charge someone formally with a crime if there is insufficient evidence to prove it," he said. "It's a little hypocritical that my opponent says, 'Oh, he's soft on crime, because he doesn't file charges on every case.' He always leaves off that second part of the policy, which is when we file charges, we require defendants to plead guilty to what they did."

The race has been ugly. Duncan's campaign regularly sends email blasts replete with AI-generated photos that depict Hicks as a prosecutor who skirted state ethics rules and has let criminals off the hook.

"Chris Hicks has never had any sunlight on the many, many wrong things that he's doing in this community," he said.

Hicks, meanwhile, has has defended and ran on his dozen-year tenure — touting new programs for domestic violence and child sexual abuse victims.

 He recently launched a six-figure ad campaign that describes Hicks as a "career prosecutor, not a career politician," an apparent jab at Duncan, a former state legislator and one-time Republican nominee for Nevada attorney general.

"He is being very aggressive and very disingenuous in his messaging about me," Hicks said. "I'm not going to get down in the mud with Wes Duncan.
I'm proud of my record."

"Zero scrutiny" and "a carpetbagger"

Hicks is a fifth-generation Nevadan and the son of Larry Hicks, who served one term as Washoe County district attorney in the 1970s before becoming a federal judge. He is 52 and a father of four.

He joined the district attorney's office in 2005 following a three-year stint as a prosecutor in Carson City. He was first elected to the top prosecutor role in 2014, facing no opposing candidates. 

In his tenure, his office has launched a center to investigate child abuse and to help victims to heal from that abuse, as well as a new team of prosecutors focused on efforts to reintegrate offenders back into the community.

Hicks was also a prominent proponent of Lombardo's 2025 crime bill, whiche stablished harsher penalties for certain burglaries and a transitional custody program for nonviolent inmates.

Hicks won re-election in 2018 and 2022 after facing no opponents — something Duncan has highlighted in his campaign.

"DA Hicks has had zero scrutiny on his office for almost 12 years," Duncan said.

Duncan, meanwhile, is a 45-year-old father of four who served as a lawyer for the Air Force in Iraq. 

He served one term in the Nevada Assembly, representing a district in the northwestern Las Vegas Valley, before taking a top role under then-Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R). In 2018, he ran to succeed his boss, losing to Democrat Aaron Ford by less than 5,000 votes.

Following that loss, he worked in the Washoe County district attorney's office under Hicks before moving to the Sparks city attorney's office. The Sparks City Council appointed him as city attorney — the top prosecutor for Reno's northeast neighbor — in 2022, and he won re-election two years later without facing a challenger.

Hicks has criticized Duncan's past runs for political office and his non-Northern Nevada roots (he was born in Sonora, California).

"He's a carpetbagger," Hicks said. "His record is not one of commitment to do the work. It's just a pattern of political movement."

Duncan said he rejected calls to run for attorney general again this cycle and is proud of his record.

"When you see something that needs to be fixed in your community, is it better to complain about it, or is it better to try to go out and do something about it?" he said.

Is the county getting safer?

Central to Duncan's pitch is that Washoe County is getting more dangerous under Hicks' tenure. He cites FBI data that shows crime rates in the county and Reno are consistently above national averages.

Asked about these numbers, Hicks expressed skepticism because reporting crime data to the FBI is voluntary, meaning the national averages are likely to be underestimates.

Instead, Hicks pointed to a Nevada-specific website, which is run by the state Department of Public Safety based on data collected from local agencies, showing violent and property crime rates in Washoe County have been largely stable with a slight downward trend. In Reno, violent crime ticked up last year.

Duncan has been endorsed by police unions in Northern Nevada, while all of Hicks' law enforcement endorsements come from former officials.

"They are looking for new leadership because he's failing this community. He's keeping the community less safe, and he's not working with law enforcement," Duncan said. "​​If all of law enforcement had not said, 'We have to go in a different direction from this current DA,' I wouldn't be in this race."

Hicks rejected that framing — saying union endorsements are not necessarily reflective of all rank-and-file members.

"They make it look like their emblem is a representation of the law enforcement agency they work with, but at the end of the day, they are police union bosses," he said.

Police union leadership has criticized the charging policies, arguing they increase the risk of reoffending. Because of the threshold that a charge must be provable beyond a reasonable doubt — a burden of proof also in place at the federal level — there are more instances of charges not being pursued.

In the three years since the policy took effect, the rate of decisions to not pursue charges has almost tripled. And despite this stricter threshold, the conviction rate of cases that go to trial has also decreased since the policy took effect.

The number of cases the district attorney's office received in 2025 was down.

Duncan has specifically highlighted the decision to not charge one of the suspects in a 2023 apartment shooting of seven people. Another suspect was convicted, but prosecutors opted against charging a second person suspected of being part of the shooting amid concerns certain evidence would be inadmissible.

Hicks argued the policy does not mean the office is getting softer on crime.

"By requiring law enforcement to give us cases that are investigated to the extent that we can prove them in court is actually a tough on crime approach, because that gives us the ability to make sure victims are taken care of," he said.

Mudslingling

Recent attacks from Duncan's campaign relate to an ethics complaint alleging Hicks is engaging in nepotism.

Following publication of a story in This is Reno in late March, the complaint was filed by Jeff Church, a former Washoe County school board trustee and Reno police sergeant who frequently sued the school board.

It alleges Hicks improperly promoted his wife to a top prosecutorial position. Nevada law prohibits public officials from employing close family members.

Duncan's campaign has sent out emails abrim with AI-generated photos, including one of Hicks and his wife standing in a pile of cash.

"What I think it tells the public is that Mr. Hicks doesn't think that the rules apply to him," Duncan said.

However, Hicks said the prohibition on "employing" a family member means "hiring." He and his wife met as prosecutors and got married before he became district attorney. He said he has recused himself from any employment decisions concerning his wife since taking office.

"There is no story there other than I'm in a heated campaign and someone has decided to recycle it," Hicks said. "Any suggestion that my wife's career is the result of our relationship is not only false, it is demeaning to her professionalism and experience."