Regent challenges Democratic incumbent in State Senate District 4

Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal is facing a challenge from a higher education regent in a primary race where the outcome will determine who represents the district for the next four years.

SD4 is a heavily Democratic district encompassing part of North Las Vegas. No Republicans filed for the seat, which means the winner of the upcoming primary election will automatically win the general election.

Neal was first elected to the Nevada State Senate seat in 2020 after representing the same area in the Nevada State Assembly for 10 years. To secure a second term in the upper chamber, Neal must survive a challenge by Laura Perkins, a first-term regent for the Nevada System of Higher Education. Perkins insists she was motivated to run by a desire to influence policy beyond what the Board of Regents is capable of, and not by dissatisfaction with Neal, who has butted heads with some members of North Las Vegas City Council and been publicly accused of misusing her influence.

‘It was just time,” Perkins said of her decision to run, “The time is right.”

Neal declined to be interviewed and did not respond to written questions submitted by the Current.

Perkins says her experience on the Board of Regents has prepared her for the Legislature.

“It’s like you have eight cities,” she said of the institutions overseen by the board. “I learned about finance, budget, human resources, investments, Title-9… You have to be a jack of all trades when you’re a regent.”

Perkins previously ran for mayor of North Las Vegas in 2022, coming in last in a crowded primary field of seven candidates. Pamela Goynes-Brown, who won that race and became the city’s first Black woman mayor, has endorsed Perkins in the state senate race. North Las Vegas City Councilman Isaac Barron also endorsed her.

“Perkins is an ethical, honest and fierce advocate for our entire community, not just her select friends,” said Goynes-Brown in a statement released by the campaign. 

“I know she will restore moral and ethical representation to Nevada Senate District 4,” said Barron in a statement.

Goynes-Brown and Barron’s comments allude to public allegations made by the former head of the publicly-funded grant program NV Grow that Neal attempted to pressure him into awarding her friend money for his small business. Neal, who in 2015 passed the legislation that created the NV Grow program, has denied any wrongdoing and characterized the accusations as being part of a smear campaign by the City of North Las Vegas in retaliation over her work with Windsor Park, a long-blighted neighborhood where the homes are sinking into the ground.

Neal sponsored a bill during the last legislative session that secured $20 million from North Las Vegas and $10 million from the state to make the remaining homeowners in Windsor Park whole by relocating them to new properties. The city opposed the bill.

Perkins, when asked, did not directly address the criticisms of Neal being lobbied by her endorsers, saying that she “wants to run for the seat, not challenge her.” But she did call the endorsements “very motivating and encouraging.”

Perkins said that, if elected, her focus will be on education and economic development. She said she’d also like to find a way to help middle class families who are struggling with being caretakers for their elderly family members, a situation she experienced in the final years of her mom’s life.

Neal chairs the Senate Revenue and Economic Development Committee. Many of the bills she sponsored have dealt with tax policy. She has led efforts to modernize Nevada’s sales tax, which currently applies to tangible items and not their digital counterparts, and proposed a method for adjusting property tax without touching the beloved cap. She was also an outspoken critic of Tesla receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in tax abatements without approval from lawmakers.

Neal’s campaign had nearly $27,000 cash on hand as of March 31, according to her campaign finance reports. Her top contributors include Citizens for Justice Trust and Cox Communications, which gave $5,000 and $2,500, respectively.

Perkins had raised approximately $2,000 as of March 31, according to her campaign finance reports. Half of that — $1,000 — came from the real estate development company American Nevada Holdings.