Vote Nevada Supporters,

Summer is upon us, yet nothing is lazy.  So much is happening, it’s hard to keep up.

Based on some initial analysis of the President’s bill, it doesn’t appear that anything that could bust our state budget could happen until 2027.  That does not mean we are out of the fiscal woods, however, for two reasons.

First, President Trump is still withholding money Congress appropriated for the states before this year.  That money was built into our last budget cycle, so we may have shortfalls to overcome this cycle. Whether that will require a special legislative session is unclear.

Second, due to the President’s erratic tariff practices, the U.S. economy is starting to slow and show signs of weakness.  Las Vegas is very resilient, so tourists are still coming, just not as many.  If our projected revenue for this budget cycle starts to fall short, budget cuts may be in our future.

The news is also full of immigration enforcement tactics that lack the required adherence to due process. It is frustrating to try to understand how we ended up here; unfortunately, the politicization of immigration policy began with President John Adams and the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. 

President Adams and his Federalist Party targeted immigrants who might one day vote for his rival, Thomas Jefferson, and the Democratic-Republican Party. 

If you are interested in a brief history of immigration policy in American history, I am offering a one-hour Zoom session this Saturday, July 19^th, from 9 to 10 am.  In addition to teaching U.S. history, I also teach Latin American Studies, so we can discuss why so many people flee from Latin American nations and the role of the U.S. in creating those conditions.

You can RSVP for the meeting here: https://vote-nevada.news/American-Immigration-History

I know it seems like the next primary election is far away, but it will be here faster than we can imagine.  In this midterm, we will elect a Governor, a state Attorney General, a Sheriff, and many judges, so it will be vital for every voter to be a Primary Voter.  Let’s start talking to friends and family now about voting. 

 Thank you for being a Nevadan with me,

 Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through
Smith’s Inspiring Donations; you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement
organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org;
we have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through
PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA

Vote Nevada Supporters,

I am predicting we won’t see any lazy days this summer.  

The dust hasn’t quite settled from the legislative session, yet we already have candidates who have announced their intention to run for office in 2026.  

Before we head into election mode, though, we also need to focus on the interim legislative session, as well as a host of county and municipal meetings, which will cover critical issues related to bill implementation and new policies.

To maintain that focus, we have one more weekend of Vote Nevada Summer of Civics 2025 workshops, after which we will be ready to tackle each working group’s priorities.  

You can join as many working groups as you like.

You can see each working group’s title and recorded kick-off meeting here: https://vote-nevada-blog.org/summer-of-civics-2025/

You can also RSVP for either or both of this weekend’s meetings on the same page. 

This weekend’s meetings are:

Ballot Questions 101: RSVP for the Kick-Off Meeting

Oral History Project: Women in Trades: RSVP for the Kick-Off Meeting 

These meetings have recordings from the past two weekends:

People’s Interim Committee: Kick-Off Meeting Video.

Preparing for 2026: Kick-Off Meeting Video.

2026 Civics Voter Guide: Kick-Off Meeting Video.

Civics Education & Engagement: 101: Kick-Off Meeting Video.

Thank you all for being Nevadans with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through

Smith’s Inspiring Donations; you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement

organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org;

we have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through

PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA

Vote Nevada Supporters,

Summer of Civics 2025 is officially underway! We had two successful working group kick-offs this past weekend.  Our People’s Interim Committee & Preparing for 2026 kick-off meeting recordings are on this blog webpage: https://vote-nevada-blog.org/summer-of-civics-2025/

See the menu above.

If you hear something you like in either of these meeting recordings, which are approximately one hour long each, you can join by emailing me. 

Please feel free to also RSVP for the remaining four kick-off meetings, scheduled for the next two weekends, on the same webpage above.

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The People’s Interim Committee will begin by seeking volunteers to follow boards, commissions, councils, and offices that can address our priority issues.  

We would like to have at least one person per governing body who can post about the items on upcoming meeting agendas, as well as any actions taken on our priority issues.  We need to maximize local government efforts to address the problems that weren’t fully addressed by our legislature and governor.

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The Preparing for 2026 Working Group would like to inform anyone considering running for office that we can offer workshops and mentoring for new candidates.  This includes partisan and nonpartisan opportunities to run.

We are also off and running to ensure all voters know that our mid-term elections are very important.  We elect the Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, Controller, District Attorney, Sheriffs, judges, and many more in this midterm. 

If justice reform is important to you, voting in our midterms is vitally important.

We will be launching the ‘Be a Primary Voter’ campaign in July.

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The recorded working group meetings are only an hour long. If you are interested in these two groups or any of the others, please feel free to join.

Thank you for being a Nevadan with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada Supporters,

I apologize if you receive this information twice.

Included in this message is the meeting recording, invitations to the upcoming Summer of Civics events, and some links for more information.

This is the meeting recording: https://vote-nevada.news/Legislative-Review-Recording

You can access the legislature’s website here: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/

Summer of Civics Working Groups

People’s Interim Committee: This working group will identify policy issues that failed to advance during the past legislative session but could be addressed by another level of government.  We will also explore what needs to be a priority for the next legislative session.  People Centered Workforce Development and Lifting People Out of Poverty will be top priorities.

June 14th from 9 to 10 am via Zoom, RSVP: https://vote-nevada.news/Peoples-Interim-Committee

Preparing for the 2026 Election Cycle: Vote Nevada will provide guidance on how to run for office, while working group members will develop an advocacy agenda for the election cycle and discuss community events that candidates can also attend. The focus will be on the community.

June 15th from 9 to 10 am via Zoom, RSVP https://vote-nevada.news/Preparing-for-2026

Create a 2026 Civics Voter Guide: This will be an electronic voter guide that offers civics information as well as candidate information.   We will need volunteers to help gather election and civics information that we can include to help new voters.

June 21st from 9 to 10 am via Zoom, RSVP: https://vote-nevada.news/Civics-Voter-Guide

Civics Education & Engagement 101: This working group will discuss strategies for engaging with reluctant voters.  Telling people they don’t understand the importance of voting or trying to shame them into voting can backfire.  We need some conversation prompts that acknowledge why a voter may choose not to vote as a solution.  Young voters, in particular, need to be heard first.

June 22nd from 9 to 10 am via Zoom, RSVP: https://vote-nevada.news/Civics-Ed-Engage

Ballot Questions 101: We will discuss the ballot question process, including which ballot questions will appear on the 2026 ballot and potential additional ballot questions that may be added.

June 28th from 9 to 10 am via Zoom, RSVP: https://vote-nevada.news/Ballot-Questions-101

 Oral History Project: This working group will gather evidence for possible bills in the 2026 legislative session.  Our first project involves interviewing women who have worked or are currently working in the trades, allowing them to share their experiences.  We need to understand why there are so few women in the trades, which offer jobs that lift people out of poverty.

June 29th from 9 to 10 am, via Zoom: https://vote-nevada.news/Oral-History-Project

Feel free to join as many working groups as you’d like.

You can subscribe to the Vote Nevada Blog here: https://vote-nevada-blog.org/

You can subscribe to my Substack Blog here: https://sondracosgrove.substack.com/ 

Thank you for being a Nevadan with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through Smith’s Inspiring Donations; you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here  https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org; we have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA

Vote Nevada Supporters,

Here’s an update on yesterday’s Economic Forum Meeting.

Today’s brief Zoom meeting about yesterday’s EF meeting:

https://vote-nevada.news/Economic-Forum-May-2025

The article referenced in the presentation:  https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/fearing-slowdown-economic-forum-predicts-173m-less-for-forthcoming-nevada-budget

You can watch the Economic Forum meeting recording and see all the meeting’s presentations and data here: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/InterimCommittee/REL/Interim2023/Committee/1973/Meetings

An explanation of Nevada’s budget process: https://sondracosgrove.substack.com/p/death-by-fiscal-note-and-the-state?r=en6px

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for being Nevadans with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through
Smith’s Inspiring Donations; you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement
organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org;
we have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through
PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA

Vote Nevada Supporters,

The first major legislative deadline was Friday, April 11^th.  Approximately 281 bills died out of about 1,000.

Budget issues are playing a role as we wait to see if Congress will demand the administration send encumbered funds to the states or if the administration will defy Congress and the courts. If that happens, about one-third of Nevada’s budget will disappear, especially for health care.

Budget issues are just one reason bills could die. Many dead bills in this round died because of opposition from interest groups or because a bill’s sponsor is a member of the party in the minority. 

Unfortunately, in too many instances, voters’ views have become increasingly irrelevant compared to the power of special interests and donors.

Let’s kick off the Vote Nevada Summer of Civics a little early to ensure that good ideas aren’t sacrificed for money and partisanship.  After all, it sure feels like summer.   You can sign up for any of these working groups using the form at the end of this message.

Here are the activities so far:

1. The legislature runs interim committees that mirror the session committee structure. Interim committees study issues and recommend bills for the next legislative session. However, most of the public is unaware of this interim process and opportunities to participate.

Vote Nevada is, therefore, starting a People’s Interim Committee. One of the first things we can do is review dead bills to see if any part of them could be addressed in another way.  For instance, could a county commission, city council, or board or committee implement even part of a bill?

If we can find workarounds for dead bills, at least in those instances, we won’t lose two years waiting to see if a bill can pass.

2. Responsive workforce development that ensures workers have a stable place to live, affordable transportation options, childcare, nutritious food, and comprehensive health care is another challenge that can’t be fully addressed during a legislative session. 

So, we need a People’s Interim Committee group that can find ways to focus on building up workers while we engage in workforce development.

3. Some community members have volunteered to offer Run as a Nonpartisan Candidate workshops this summer.  These helpers have experience running for office and managing campaigns.  So, if you’ve ever thought about running for office, please sign up for more information.

4. If you’re more interested in working on ballot questions, we have some already in mind for 2026, but we’d like to hear yours as well. 

5. Public civics education is more important than ever, so if you’d like to create resources to help more Nevadans be confident voters, we also have a group for you. This group includes opportunities to practice leadership skills and communication strategies.

I’m sure we’ll add more activities by the time it officially hits 100 degrees in Vegas, but this is a good place to start.

Please sign up today: https://vote-nevada.news/Summer-of-Civics-2025

Thank you for being Nevadans with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through
Smith’s Inspiring Donations: You can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement
organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org.
We have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through
PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA

Vote Nevada Supporters,

Yesterday’s Shirley Chisholm Leadership Academy was a huge success! It was a day full of wisdom, dialogue, and insights.  I put all the individual panel Zoom recordings into this Dropbox folder if you’d like to watch one or more https://vote-nevada.news/Shirley-Chisholm-Leadership-Academy-2025

Please also consider attending this Conversations on Voting event on April 10^th, Noon to 1 PM, via Zoom. You can RSVP here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Rof86z81Qgmx9Hg6rD17Bg

Plans are progressing for this year’s Vote Nevada Summer of Civics.  I will send more details soon with requests for help hosting and managing events and workshops.

I started a Substack blog to post some longer observations about current events https://sondracosgrove.substack.com/

Thanks for being Nevadans with me,

Sondra

Vote Nevada is now qualified to receive donations through Smith’s Inspiring Donations; you can read more about how to donate to Vote Nevada each time you use your Smith’s loyalty card here  https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/i/community/smiths-inspiring-donations

Vote Nevada is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit civic engagement organization.  Anyone can become a supporter by emailing info@vote-nevada.org; we have no membership dues. You can now donate to Vote Nevada through PayPal at  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=L423L7FBMMBEA