Anti-film tax credit vote spurs state Senate primary between 2 Latino community fixtures

On a bright Saturday morning, nearly a dozen people came out to canvas for Isaac Barron, the longtime North Las Vegas city councilman and Democrat who is making a bid for a state Senate seat against incumbent Sen. Edgar Flores (D-Las Vegas). 

As volunteers walked from door-to-door, voters shared concerns about the rising cost of living, housing and education. Several voters recognized the name of Barron, who spent 13 years on the city council and was a teacher at Rancho High School for nearly 30 years. 

"He has my vote," Donna Gonzales, a resident of North Las Vegas and former Clark County School District teacher, told canvassers when she heard Barron's name. She mentioned that she thinks one of his relatives recently worked on her roof. 

The race between Barron, 56, who is term-limited from the council, and Flores, 39, is expected to be one of the most competitive primary races this cycle. Both candidates are community fixtures and are heavily campaigning. The district — which covers parts of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas — skews Democratic, meaning that whoever wins the primary in June is likely to win the general election this fall. 

It's compounded by the fact that the district is majority Latino. Both Flores and Barron come from immigrant backgrounds and have family ties to the Culinary Union, an important connection given a third of the district works in the service industry. Flores works as an immigration lawyer and in 2020, hosted a well-publicized horseback riding parade to rally Latinos in support of Joe Biden. Barron, meanwhile, was the first Latino elected to North Las Vegas City Council and received an award in 2019 for promoting democracy in Nevada.

 

The race has in part been cast as a fallout over the death of a proposed expansion of the state's film tax credit program. The bill, predicted to put the state into a budget deficit, was heavily backed by labor unions which said it would boost construction jobs and pre-K funding. After Flores voted against the bill during the 2025 special session, Laborers Local 872, a key backer of the proposal, rescinded its endorsement of Flores and several other lawmakers.

When asked if the primary was tied to his film tax vote, Flores responded, "Absolutely." He suggested that some people were trying to "capitalize" on the death of the film tax bill. 

Barron, who said he was hopeful that the proposal would bring new jobs, stated that the demise of the film tax bill was the "final straw" in his decision to run. Barron, who grew up in the district, said that the community is drastically underserved, lacking robust healthcare facilities and that the bill could have boosted economic opportunities in the district. 

"He darn well knew just how important that this bill was for people on our side of town," Barron said about Flores' film vote.

Barron has butted heads with state representatives from the region before. He said Flores — who has chaired the Assembly Government Affairs Committee, which deals with issues involving local governments — hasn't stood up for North Las Vegas. He pointed to a proposal sponsored by Flores that would have increased the number of wards and city council members in North Las Vegas, a proposal never endorsed by the city.

In 2024, Barron, alongside North Las Vegas Mayor Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown and North Las Vegas City Councilman Scott Black, launched a PAC against Sen. Dina Neal (D-North Las Vegas) that alleged she has been "soft-on-crime for decades" and she tried to "destroy our police department and community."

Barron also said he was concerned about Flores' now-closed DUI case from last summer.

In addition to his work as city councilman, Barron is a nonvoting member of the Clark County School District Board. 

On the issues: 

Film tax

Flores said he didn't vote for the bill last year out of concerns it could further stress the state budget. A legislative fiscal staff analysis found that if approved, the proposal could have forced the state to cut services or raise revenue.

Although Flores acknowledged that unions were upset about his vote, he says he has a track record of working with them and running bills to boost worker protections. Since then, several other unions have come out in support of Flores, including the Culinary Union, Teamsters and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Culinary Union confirmed last Thursday that it is endorsing Flores, calling him the "obvious" choice, pointing out his prior support of culinary initiatives such as the daily room cleaning mandate. 

"This is just how politics works, right?" Flores said in an interview with The Indy. "Individuals may have a better relationship with certain individuals or believe that a certain individual may be better for their objective."

Despite fiscal concerns about film tax credits, Barron said it was important to try to diversify the state economy beyond gaming and tourism. He pointed to an estimate that the bill would create 17,000 new jobs. He said that the issue of diversification is particularly important in North Las Vegas, which has among the highest foreclosure rates in the country. 

Barron has secured the backing of Laborers Local 872 and the Clark County Education Association, which both supported the film tax bill. 

Immigration

Immigration is one of the consequential topics in the majority Latino district. Flores and Barron agree that more protections need to be extended to the district's Latino and immigrant community. 

During his time in the Legislature, Flores has pushed to include protections for immigrants in Gov. Joe Lombardo's crime bill, such as limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence on school grounds. In the 2025 session, he worked on a bill to expand protections for agricultural workers — many who are migrant workers —  but it never received a second vote. 

In the 2021 session, Flores sponsored a bill that would have essentially ended police collaboration with ICE, but the bill was gutted after facing backlash from law enforcement agencies. 

Barron agreed that more needs to be done to protect immigrants who have no criminal record and said that police collaboration with ICE should be limited. He said there are many undocumented people who have lived in the community for decades and are living in fear. 

In response to a follow-up question about whether he would support ending 287(g) agreements in Nevada, Barron said that "law enforcement should focus on public safety, not immigration enforcement." 

Education

Both candidates expressed general support for increasing revenue to schools, but they did not respond to specifics about whether they support a proposal that has divided Democrats: whether to raise revenue dramatically to help state per-pupil funding reach the national average, likely by adjusting property taxes.

"I absolutely support increasing funding for our schools," Barron said. "I'm committed to making sure our classrooms have the resources they need to succeed." 

Flores did not respond to a follow-up question about raising property taxes, but he voted in favor of such a proposal in the 2017 legislative special session. 

Another lightning rod issue has been expanding school choice. It has been a pillar of Lombardo's agenda, although some progressives are concerned it could undermine funding for public schools. It will likely be a major policy discussion in future legislative sessions. 

Flores said he disagrees with the idea that the only way to get a "quality education is through a private school." He said that public schools need more investment and focus on recruiting "quality" teachers. 

"When we talk about public education, there's no reason why it can't be the best," Flores said. 

Although Barron was a public school teacher, he said he is happy about school choice programs, such as open enrollment, coming to his school district. He is also broadly supportive of Opportunity Scholarships, which offer needs-based scholarships to private schools and has been a key Lombardo policy proposal.

North Las Vegas consistently has had some of the worst-rated schools among major metropolitan areas, and Barron is optimistic it will allow parents to take their children to schools that meet their needs. CCEA, the state's largest teacher's union, endorsed Barron, calling him "a stalwart of the community and a role model to those he mentored."

"I think we can't discount the fact that we actually have a great opportunity here," Barron said.

Barron also said there is a need to boost funding for schools. Specifically, he said the per-pupil funding formula needs to be adjusted because of declining enrollments in Clark County and other Nevada school districts. 

Public safety

Flores has worked on several public safety initiatives as a lawmaker. In the 2025 legislative session, he passed a proposal to establish an Office for the Prevention of Gun Violence to keep data on gun violence and potentially award grants for prevention initiatives. 

The proposal was vetoed by Lombardo, but Flores said he's been having discussions in the interim about bringing back similar legislation. 

Flores said he was hesitant about Lombardo's sprawling crime bill — which cracked down on crime on the Strip and theft — but felt he needed to support it because of the addition of immigration protections. The bill was criticized for lacking public input, and Flores said he wished more stakeholders, such as public defenders, could have weighed in on the proposal. 

"I thought it was really important, particularly for our kids, so that the message is out there very clearly, that ICE is not just going to be coming into their school," Flores said. "That was my big push."

In an interview with The Indy, Barron said he was broadly supportive of the bill though he thought there should have been more put into community resources than "enforcement." As city councilman, Barron said he's worked to increase mental health and homelessness resources in the area. In the past, he has worked on an initiative to crack down on graffiti and juvenile delinquency, helping establish a system that lets residents notify public safety if they see graffiti, so it can be cleaned up.

Barron also said he would like to see stricter penalties for people charged with DUI, including making them lose their license for up to a year. 

Housing 

Flores and Barron agreed there is a need for more affordable housing in Nevada. Since the pandemic, the area has seen a drastic increase in housing prices, with rents increasing by nearly 30 percent since 2019.  

During the 2025 legislative and special sessions, Flores backed a bill to cap the number of homes a corporation can buy to 1,000 and keep a running registry of those buyers. The bill ultimately died by one vote.

Barron also said there is a need to build new housing in the region to bring prices down. When asked whether he supports the corporate housing bill, he said he's "open to smart solutions that protect homeownership without hurting overall supply."

In 2022, Barron voted to reject a ballot initiative from the Culinary Union to limit rent increases in North Las Vegas. The initiative received 3,400 signatures — which exceeded the 476 needed to qualify the measure for the municipal ballot — but the City of North Las Vegas deemed the ballot insufficient, saying the union misread how many signatures a petition needs.  

There were several legal questions about whether local governments had the authority to implement rent caps at the time of the proposal and there were fears that if approved, it could have led to a lawsuit. In 2023, Flores led a proposal to clarify the local government's ability to address the housing crisis, but it was vetoed by Lombardo for its "excessive broadness."