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Flores To Run For Hardy's Nevada Congressional Seat

Lucy Flores
John Locher/AP

Lucy Flores on the campaign trail for Nevada lieutenant governor in 2014. Flores is now running for Cresent Hardy's congressional seat

A familiar Democratic face has thrown her name in the hat as a candidate for U.S. Congressional District 4 in Nevada.

Former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores recently announced she would run just a few weeks after fellow Democrat and Nevada Senator Ruben Kihuen did. The setup may prove for an interesting primary election in 2016.

Flores told KNPR's State of Nevada that she had intended to support Steve Horsford but when he announced that he was not going to run, she evaluated whether running for office was a good idea for her and the community and ultimately decided to run.

CD 4 is a sprawling district that includes northern Clark, Nye, Lincoln, White Pine, Esmeralda, Mineral and Lyon counties.

"Frankly, coming off this last election and spending so much time in the rural parts of the district I just really felt a good connection and felt like I could continue my public service and representing the values of Congressional District 4," Flores said.

The district is about 30 percent Hispanic and leans Democratic. Should Flores and Kihuen split the Hispanic vote, it may give another candidate the right edge to win. Other names mentioned for the seat have included State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and Danny Tarkanian.

However, Flores is not concerned about the issue because she said candidates always split votes in primary elections. She said her focus will be on talking with voters about their needs.

"I'm more concerned about talking with all of my registered democrats who can vote in a democratic primary and focusing on their needs," Flores said. 

Flores was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 2010, and has not been shy about her troubled childhood, which included gang activity and jail time. She credits a probation officer for helping her turn her life around, graduate college and get a law degree to then becoming a Nevada lawmaker.

Although Flores easily won re-election to the Assembly, she lost the race for lieutenant governor in November.  

And while currently getting much of anything done in the heavily divided Congress is difficult, Flores said she believes there is more to helping out the people of her district than getting bills passed.

"There are many many things that you can do at the grassroots level as a representative in Congress to provide that everyday help that people are looking for," Flores said.

Lucy Flores, democratic candidate for U.S. Congressional District 4

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Prior to taking on the role of Broadcast Operations Manager in January 2021, Rachel was the senior producer of KNPR's State of Nevada program for 6 years. She helped compile newscasts and provided coverage for and about the people of Southern Nevada, as well as major events such as the October 1 shooting on the Las Vegas strip, protests of racial injustice, elections and more. Rachel graduated with a bachelor's degree of journalism and mass communications from New Mexico State University.