Since winning his second presidential election, Donald Trump — backed up by his administration — has promised to step up deportations of undocumented immigrants, eliminate large swaths of the federal government, stop trans women from participating in women’s sports, and reverse regulations meant to address climate change. It’s a monumental, albeit controversial, agenda that’s sure to cast a long shadow over Washington and the rest of the country. That includes Carson City, where state lawmakers will gavel in Nevada’s 83rd legislative session in February.
Well before lawmakers are called to order, however, state-level Republicans and Democrats began preparations for a second Trump administration.
In November, just days after the election, Nevada’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, issued a statement acknowledging Trump’s win while also warning that the president’s rhetoric regarding immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color had “created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for many Nevadans.” Ford went on to say his office would oppose any effort by the Trump administration to overreach in Nevada.
“We will be a bulwark against any effort to impose unconstitutional mandates; override our system of checks and balances; or intrude upon the rights of any Nevada resident,” Ford said.
On the flipside, Governor Joe Lombardo was among the 26 Republican governors who signed a letter in December saying they were “ready to utilize every tool at (their) disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard” — to support Trump’s plans to “deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in this country illegally.”
Last year, the governor also weighed in on the debate over trans women participating in women’s sports, supporting UNR’s women’s volleyball players who voted to forfeit their match against San José State, whose team includes a player who may be transgender.
While specifics of forthcoming legislation are scant at the time of this writing, lawmakers say they’re prepared to introduce bills addressing the state’s National Guard and interscholastic sports. They’re among the almost 1,000 bill draft requests submitted by lawmakers in the months ahead of the session.
Environmental issues are another obvious source of contention. During campaign stops in Las Vegas, Trump promised to open federal land for more housing and development. He also vowed to expand oil and gas exploration on public lands, while at the same time cutting back on Biden-era conservation efforts — which legislative Democrats have worked to enact at the state level in recent years. And that debate doesn’t even include the coming knock-down, drag-out fight that will occur in federal courts when the Colorado River Compact ends in 2026. Or the slow-moving disasters of extreme heat and wildfire, put on steroids by climate change.
And there are other immigration issues beyond the use of the National Guard in mass deportations. Along with the economy, immigration was a defining issue of this election for Nevada GOP voters, with many supporting Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal border crossings and deport millions of undocumented residents. Of course, state lawmakers have no control over federal immigration policy. But in the third-most diverse state in the country, where a fifth of the population are immigrants, there will be political, economic, and social ramifications the likes of which we’ve never really had to confront. It will be our lawmakers who must respond to the issues that crop up and the opportunities that arise from those federal policies.
The only bipartisan life buoy of this session may be a potential tax deal to lure major film production studios to the Las Vegas Valley. Warner Bros. and Sony have both expressed interest in expanding from Southern California and have publicly promised to spend billions on new sound stages and offices. It’s the type of pledge from a multibillion-dollar company that catches the attention of Nevada Republicans and Democrats alike. It would create highly paid construction jobs, sure to appease the trade unions, while scoring another win for the state’s low tax policies, long protected by Nevada’s conservative, libertarian traditions. It’s the type of legislation that could serve as a bargaining chip for both sides during those tough end-of-session negotiations.
The specter of re-election will also loom over this session, possibly tamping down some of the partisanship. While Republicans made modest gains in the Nevada Legislature — picking up one seat in the Assembly and avoiding a Democratic supermajority in the Senate — it was likely because of, in large part, Trump’s name at the top of the ticket. Democrats, on the other hand, maintained their majorities in 2024, but it cost them millions of dollars, and they still only won by slim margins.
A studio deal by itself won’t be enough to keep contentious negotiations going. And candidates from both parties who are up for re-election in the November 2026 midterm may prefer to underscore their differences rather than embrace bipartisanship.
That would mean a legislative session that’s about lining up behind battle lines — finding the issues that divide us most and campaigning on them. The big question, then, would be where President Trump’s 2025 agenda will draw those lines.
