As President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump gear up for a rematch, organizations say it’s vital for voters to trust the election system.

The Nevada Independent explains the trends and races that we’re watching in the primary and what the results could portend for the general election.

The contested race pits Angie Taylor, a one-term assemblywoman against Naomi Duerr, a Reno city councilwoman.

The races that The Indy is monitoring closely include a Culinary-backed nurse and state regent taking on veteran legislators, and a Bachelorette contestant against a former A’s lobbyist.

The establishment-backed candidate in all but one of the important primaries identified by The Nevada Independent had a fundraising lead in the first quarter.

It’s not everything, but an analysis of fundraising since 2016 revealed more than two thirds of winners had an early fundraising lead.

The two Democrats are competing for the seat of Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno), who announced in early August that she would not run for re-election in order to spend more time with her family.

A need for access to lifelong autism treatment services is one of the reasons Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) sponsored and helped pass SB191 during the 2023 legislative session. 

The schools plan to use the funds to hire additional faculty, but officials cautioned that key factors of the nursing shortage — such as faculty pay and burnout — remain unaddressed.

While the so-called crisis was averted, advocates say the cycle may be repeated next year unless state leaders work to improve the school choice program, including by allocating more funding to the program. 

Since 2011, just 15 percent of legislators were more likely to vote toward the middle of the ideological spectrum in a given session than toward the farthest left or right.

With her exit from state politics, the district will become one of the most important legislative races in the state in the 2024 election, as Democrats look to flip at least one Senate seat needed to create a veto-proof supermajority.

Republican legislators were more likely to buck their party, with 415 out of nearly 15,000 votes this year in support of bills that the majority of their caucus opposed.

Hours before the Legislature was set to adjourn sine die, Democratic leaders thought they had a deal. But it got derailed by a push to include charter schools in a bill to fund pay raises for school district educators.

The vote on SB1 comes after more than five days of backroom negotiations in a special session of the Legislature that ultimately spurred the Tuesday addition of two substantial amendments aimed at tightening the public financing language, expanding the terms of a community benefits agreement and resurrecting two bills Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed earlier this month. 

On the last day of the regular legislative session, state lawmakers passed SB341 and AB525, which appropriated money to more than 70 nonprofits and government agencies.

In another sign negotiations over the bill hit a snag, lawmakers in the Assembly adjourned with only two out of 40 members present for a roll call on the floor until Monday — likely extending the special session convened by Gov. Joe Lombardo on Wednesday until at least the middle of next week. 

The special session is the second convened by Gov. Joe Lombardo in two days since the end of the regular session Monday, with only one bill up for consideration. SB1 is a copy of SB509 from the 2023 regular session — a bill that failed to pass during the final hours of the session Monday night. 

After Senate Republicans blocked passage of the bill Monday night, a termed-out Sen. Scott Hammond (R-Las Vegas) reversed course Tuesday supporting the measure across the legislative finish line and sending it to Lombardo’s desk less than one day after the regular session ended.

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed a measure into law Tuesday that would protect out-of-state abortion seekers and those providing reproductive care from prosecution in Nevada, regardless of other states’ policies.