Assemblymember Linda Hunt

• The freshman Las Vegas Democrat succeeds Assm. Clara “Claire” Thomas (D-North Las Vegas), who made an unsuccessful bid for state Senate.
• Hunt represents District 17, which encompasses the Nellis Air Force Base and other parts of North Las Vegas.
• The district has a plurality of registered nonpartisan voters (more than 38 percent) followed by registered Democratic voters (38 percent), registered Republican voters (18 percent) and voters registered with minor parties (6.5 percent).
• She defeated two other contenders for the seat in the Democratic primary with 64 percent of the vote, more than 36 percentage points above Assembly Democratic Caucus-backed candidate Mishon Montgomery, a United States Air Force veteran and motivational speaker. Then, in the 2024 general election, Hunt beat Republican Robert Olson by more than 29 percentage points.
• She is a member of the education, government affairs and health and human services committees. 

Profile

Linda Hunt never imagined herself serving in public office. 

Hunt, 64, is a shop steward and food server at the El Cortez Hotel and Casino and a member of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, whose leaders asked her to run for office because of her leadership on the negotiating committee.

Though initially skeptical, she learned through a candidate training class she later attended that she could be a force for change, and she warmed up to the idea.

Despite her union background, Hunt said she’s focused on serving all Nevadans.

“I’m not a politician. I don’t know anything about politics, not much anyway,” Hunt said. “I don’t have to go as a politician. I go for the people … I like changing lives and working for the people.”

Her parents moved to Las Vegas from Mississippi in 1961 because of segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South. Her parents belonged to unions and praised them as key to job security and a way to advocate for people. She said her parents also focused on being ethical, caring and fair — values she said she hopes to bring to her role in the Legislature.

“When I get up to Carson City, I'm going to do whatever is right for the people,” Hunt said during an interview before the election. “They are the ones that elect me in. So I'm going to make sure that I work for them the same way I’m a shop steward and I work for the members inside my hotel.”

Hunt is interested in people, their struggles, concerns and joys. 

She strikes up conversations with gas station attendants, waitresses and others that she interacts with on a daily basis. When her son, a bartender, visited her in Carson City, they went to small restaurants in Reno, and she used every opportunity to talk with people, hearing them out without telling them she was a legislator.

One of her bills this session came from those kinds of constituent-focused conversations — AB417, a measure cracking down on illegal street racing by authorizing law enforcement to inspect vehicles for evidence that they may be used in racing. Another, AB220, would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to issue temporary identification cards to people experiencing homelessness to help them access services more effectively.

When she was campaigning, Hunt would get permission from constituents to take videos of them talking about issues they wanted state lawmakers to address. She’d also carry a notepad, jotting down concerns and ideas constituents had so she could remember them months later.

She still references those when she’s considering bills making their way through the Legislature. 

“I know that a lot of my colleagues are doing certain bills that my constituents had concerns about, like the education piece, like the health care piece,” she said. “So I'd say, ‘OK, so let me do this part, because they're doing this part.’”

Since starting the session in February, Hunt said serving in office has “been a beautiful thing.”

“We’re all here for one reason, and that's [to] make sure that the people in Nevada get what they need,” Hunt said. “And I love it.”

On the issues

Health care

Hunt said she wants the federal government to protect the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. 

She wants to focus on increasing awareness of Nevada’s state health plans, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and ensuring residents have expanded access to health care.

Elections

Addressing Gov. Joe Lombardo’s call to only count mail ballots received by the time polls close on Election Day, Hunt said she’s hesitant about proposals that limit people’s access to the ballot box and would “caution against any legislation that restricts access to voting.”

Housing

Hunt said she supports expanding affordable housing and changing the state’s summary eviction process, which requires tenants to make the first filing in an eviction case.

“The [L]egislature had a bill last session regarding this issue, which was vetoed by the governor,” she said. “But I think it was a good start for our state to protect our tenants.”

Film tax credits

Hunt said there have been many conversations around expanding film tax credits in Nevada, and she looks forward to vetting the proposals. 

“I am all for economic development, creating good-paying jobs, and expanding the workforce; however, I want to make sure this bill makes fiscal sense for Nevada taxpayers,” she said.