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 won in the District G race against tech businessman Perry Rosenstein. Nicolet beat Rosenstein by less than 2 percentage points, according to election results as of Nov. 13. 

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. Results as of Nov. 13 showed Stevens ahead of Catarata by about 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 Nov. 13, Dominguez had a lead of about 12 percentage points 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, won the District C race against Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales, the incumbent. 

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

Results showed Henry with a lead of about 4 percentage points as of Nov. 13.

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.

Results Nov. 13 showed Biassotti ahead by about 16 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 adviser of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty.

Results Nov. 13 showed Braxton won by 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. 

Results Nov. 13 showed Orr winning by 6 percentage points. 

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 won in the District 3 race against René Cantú, a current state board member.

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

Results as of Nov. 13 show Ford winning by about 3 percentage points. 

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. 

Results as of Nov. 13 show Fernandez beating Bowen by about 16 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, won the District 4 race against Tonia Holmes-Sutton, the chair of the State Public Charter School Authority’s board. 

Results as of Nov. 13 show Bautista won by about 16 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. 

Results as of Nov. 13 showed Carvalho led her opponent by almost 20 percentage points. 

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

This story was updated on 11/13/24 at 5:30 p.m. to reflect the latest results.