February 2, 2022.
Well I started down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still
I’m learning to fly …
A year ago to date, my life rapidly changed within forty-eight hours.
It was only a few short months before when my father was laid off from his casino job, as did the rest of the city, and I was the household member tasked with submitting his weekly unemployment claim. It wasn’t our first time dealing with this encounter, I was in elementary school when my dad was abruptly laid off from his job at the Castaways Hotel and Casino. Only this time, my mother, a grocery store clerk, was able to retain her job and keep the family afloat during this crisis.
To label our global pandemic response as ‘frustrating’ would have been an understatement, it was a disheartening experience that questioned my inclination to pursue a career in a sector that was repeatedly degraded and ridiculed by online conspiracy theorists. I knew there was much more to be done, much more that we could have done. When a vacancy opened in the Legislature, I immediately recognized this moment as an opportunity to help heal the wounds that my home state had experienced from the effects of COVID-19.
Fast forward to January 31, 2020. Late Sunday evening, I received a call from the sitting Majority Leader of the Nevada Legislature; over the next few minutes, this call would detail the caucus endorsement process, speech guidelines, and expectations for the week ahead. It took a while to process, but it eventually dawned on what was about to happen. Soon, I would become the candidate to stand in front of the Clark County Commission ready to receive approval for the vacancy left open in the Legislature.
Frightening? Beyond any doubt.
My appointment marked a historical point, as I became the youngest member to serve since the founding date of the Nevada State Senate. While the rest of my new colleagues were already situated in Carson City conducting ceremonial proceedings and attending committee meetings, I was running around Downtown Summerlin and Fashion Show Mall trying to calculate how many suits and ties I needed to purchase for my new position.
“How soon can you get to Carson City?” the Secretary of the Senate asked.
“Uh, tomorrow, I guess?”
By the following morning, I had scheduled my Southwest flight, packed my bags, wished my family goodbye, and left up-state ready to serve my new district.
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Looking back, I’m always amused to share that my swearing-in ceremony went viral in Mexico. To summarize, it was clear that my parents became overnight celebrities when they began to receive hundreds of congratulatory messages and blessings from families that lived nearby our hometown in Zacatecas. For them, my appointment was a symbol of hope … it was an acknowledgment of the struggles we had gone through and the strides we made together to reach this point.
My first few weeks in the Legislature were largely comprised of introductory meetings, one-on-ones with community activists, and completing online training modules for the new role that I had acquired. To my surprise, the State Senate is unique in its committee structure; considering the smaller membership in comparison to our Assembly counterpart, it’s common for most of the members in the Senate Majority to be tasked with chairing a committee.
That’s right, the 24-year-old representing the urban core of Las Vegas would now become a key decision-maker on our state’s public policy response to a growing water shortage, wild horse boom, and anything dealing with our agricultural, mining, and wildlife sectors. Even though my subject-matter expertise trailed behind other lawmakers, I felt relatively comfortable in my position given that many of the members — both Republicans and Democrats — served as mentors on the issues that pertained to our state’s landscape.
As a committee chairman, I saw this as a chance to bring an outside perspective onto issues that have remained stagnant for decades. Around mid-session, I spent many of my late nights analyzing the past conflict that plagued an issue brought forth by a bill, and then I combed through the regulations that had been revised, passed, defeated, and overturned over the years. After conferring with committee members, I utilized my judgment to determine how a certain proposal would impact our state’s trajectory and growth. It’s simple to decide whether a bill withers away or follows through, it’s much more taxing to consider the unintended consequences of your decision.
Throughout the session, things would move rapidly as we got closer to the end. Bill amendments rushed from one floor to another, meetings shortened down to fifteen-minute intervals. Wins that would emerge from my bills passing through committee, and deep discontent resulting from those that would not make it to the end.
Heartache, that’s the term that I would repeat to myself on the bills that would fail to meet deadlines or survive through the halls of the Legislative Building. And yet, despite the whirlwind nature of our democracy, I would learn that everything happens for a reason — that’s the very foundation of why we commit ourselves to the mission of this work. To hope, to fight, to win, to lose.
Don’t think twice about it, Carson City will always find some way to humble you.
Folks often ask about my reflection of serving in my first session and what it meant symbolically for someone my age to step into the political stage within a short amount of time, mostly to learn about the emotions that I had experienced and the sacrifices I made to get to this point.
“You know that scene in Captain America: Civil War when Tom Holland’s Spiderman first joined the Avengers and he kept trying to hold back his excitement for meeting these superheroes in-person, meanwhile the world is in chaos, and we end up working together to solve the crisis? Yeah, that’s how my first session felt.”
Without a doubt, serving in the Legislature has been the greatest honor of my life. Aside from the online divisiveness or defamatory remarks that are made, I learned very quickly behind the scenes that many of my colleagues were more alike than we’d like to admit — we all have a deep love and admiration for our beloved home state, with the driving determination to see our community succeed. Above all else, that’s the lesson I learned, and it’s one that I will cherish forever.
The one memory that has stuck by me took place at Harry Reid International Airport, on my way to Carson City for the first time following my appointment. Music has always been one of my modes of expression, it helps calm my nerves and soothes my thoughts throughout the day. Before taking off the runway, I typed the phrase “inspiring rock” onto Spotify’s search bar to see what random user-created playlist would pop open.
Tom Petty’s ‘Learning To Fly’ was the song that came on, my first time hearing it. That was it, it was everything I was hoping for and more.
Last February, I took an oath to protect, defend and uphold the constitution of the State of Nevada. And though the future is unknown, and everything will move rapidly, I’m learning to fly and I’m eager to earn my wings.
