In an old church turned community arts center, a night of marked civility and cordiality unfolded between long time Republican incumbent Mark Amodei and the upstart challenger, Greg Kidd, who says he wants to bring more innovation to Nevada.
Yesterday evening around 200 people poured into the Brewery Arts Center Performance Hall in Carson City for a candidate forum between Amodei, first elected to the House of Representatives for the northern Nevada district in 2011, and nonpartisan Greg Kidd.
The event was moderated by KUNR Purple Politics’ Lucia Starbuck and marked the finale in a series of forums put on by the League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada, Sierra Nevada Forums, and the AAUW Capital NV Branch.
From pews turned into seating, audience members were able to write questions on index cards to be hand delivered by volunteer high school students to be read and asked by the moderator.
In his opening statements, Amodei highlighted his proud Nevada heritage, having spent “a lifetime of living in Nevada.”
Kidd is a tech entrepreneur and Bay Area transplant who relocated to Tahoe in 2020. Kidd came out of the gate with a swift rebuttal to Amodei, asking the crowd “Show of hands in the audience how many folks here weren’t born in Nevada?” A sea of hands shot up. Kidd went on to say he was not born here, but instead chose to move here, going on to say Nevada is an exceptional state.
The moderator Starbuck followed these opening remarks with a question addressing the recent ballot misprints in Carson City and a question about Question 7. A yes on 7 would amend the constitution “to require that Nevada residents present a form of photo identification to verify their identity while voting in person, or to verify their identity using the last four digits of their drivers license or social security number when voting by mail.”
Amodei was in favor, while Kidd was against. Still, Amodei assured that there are no problems with election integrity in Nevada, chalking up mistakes and misprints to nothing more than human error. Kidd talked about the philosophy of voting “being the bedrock foundation of this country.”
Starbuck moved the conversation to ask how each candidate will reach across the aisle to create bipartisan solutions.
Amodei replied first citing specific examples in which he has worked with Democrats such as former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as well as different red and blue administrations alike to get work done in Congress. He said, “this is about getting the right thing done, not about getting wins for donkeys or elephants.”
This theme from Amodei of reaching across the aisle to get work done and be balanced came up throughout the night. He said, “so I've been accused by both sides, you know, and in the primaries, I'm a RINO (Republican in Name Only). And in the generals I'm a MAGA Republican. And so you must be doing something right in terms of hitting the balance or something like that.” He made the point that it is important to do what is right, not necessarily follow along party lines.
Kidd responded by harkening back to the past when “the most liberal Republican and the most conservative Democrat overlapped and that was called the middle.” Kidd went on to paint a picture of a future where that is possible again to work beyond party lines.
He also highlighted his previous work as a senior analyst in Washington, D.C., for the Federal Reserve which he said operated in a bipartisan way to get things done. He assured he would continue to do “what’s good for America, good for Nevada, and good for this district.”
As the forum unfolded there were a few marked differences that came up between the two, including in terms of housing and Question 6, with a yes providing for a state constitutional right to an abortion.
When asked about solving the housing crisis, Amodei responded that 85 percent of land in Nevada is owned by the federal government, and proposed that some of this land be transferred to municipalities for development. He went on to say this could be done through a proposed Lands Bill, now making its way slowly through Congress, which if passed would “provide for the designation, withdrawal, conveyance, exchange, sale, or disposal of certain lands in Nevada. Specifically, the bill permits the conveyance of federal lands to specified counties and cities, and to the Incline Village General Improvement District, for public purposes and economic development.”
Kidd responded by thanking Amodei for the legislation he had worked on, but instead of highlighting getting some of the 85 percent of federal land in Nevada transferred to developers, he focused on fixing the “blight” in downtown Reno to create local affordable housing in urban centers.
Both candidates agreed there needs to be affordable housing, but their strategies to achieve it showed marked differences. Amodei focused on addressing the federal debt as well as supply chain issues and costs of construction and said it’s an “all hands on deck” situation. Kidd instead highlighted the local mining to production lithium loop and plans to help all Nevadans profit from its mineral resources “long after the lithium was gone.” He proposed having a permanent fund to go towards easing housing access, like mineral rich places such as Alaska and Norway have developed.
Soon came the big question about access to reproductive healthcare and reproductive rights such as access to abortion and IVF. Kidd responded with a resounding yes that he supported a woman’s right to choose and didn’t think that this should be left up to the states. He went on to reference his teenage daughters and their mother who is an OB-GYN, saying this was a dinner table topic for them.
“I don't think women's healthcare should be a zoning issue and I do believe that should be resolved at the federal government,” he said, to which the audience erupted in a loud applause. This seemed like a defining moment in the night, where the audience broke the rule to hold all applause until the end. After the applause settled he said, “So I will always stand up for women's health because I think it's the right thing to do, and my teenage daughters will kick my ass.”
Amodei countered this by saying that it should be in the hands of Nevada voters, and that the 49 other states should not decide on what Nevada voters should be allowed to do. “There has been no problem in Nevada since Nevada – this is an important phrase – Nevada voters said what they wanted the rule to be in Nevada, 24 weeks, you don’t need a reason,” Amodei said.
Questions continued and covered topics such as climate change, misinformation, and access to healthcare in rural Nevada. Both candidates responded cordially and on many instances yielded their time, and on a few occasions laughter was heard from both candidates and the crowd.
Reporting by Kat Fulwider for Nevada Vote shared with Our Town Reno