Miller faces re-run of 2020 race against Palmer in Assembly District 7

First-term Assemblyman Cameron “C.H.” Miller will face off against former Virginia Beach police officer Anthony “Tony” Palmer in the race for Assembly District 7 in November’s election.

Miller, who works in entertainment and production, said he ran again for the seat to “continue the work” started during his first venture into elected office.

“Ultimately to continue representing my community, my neighbors and friends and working hard for the state,” the North Las Vegas Democrat said of his reasoning to run again.

During 2021 legislative session, 13 of the 17 bills on which he was listed as a primary sponsor passed. Miller said he was most proud of Assembly Bill 230, which prevents minors older than 16 from being tried as adults for certain crimes.

“It’s important that if they’re young people, we’re not automatically putting them in an adult criminal justice system, which does not rehabilitate in the same way. This gives them a future and opportunity to succeed,” Miller said.

Other legislative priorities for Miller include increasing equity and opportunity in the state’s cannabis industry.

His opponent in the race is a familiar face. Miller and Palmer competed for the seat in 2020, when both were first time candidates. Miller handily won the seat, garnering 68 percent of the district’s votes.

Palmer, who moved to the state in 2015 after three decades in law enforcement, said he first became politically involved following his retirement and relocation.

“I started getting involved politically, helping other candidates, attending speeches, things like that. And I had a lot of my own thoughts and ideas,” Palmer said. “I said, I could give myself five months every couple of years. I can do that for my social involvement and to try to help people in the state.”

The former police sergeant said public safety is “the most important thing” to achieve in the next legislative session.

“When you look at what people need first, the first thing that they need is to be safe,” he said. “If you don’t have safety, doesn’t matter if you have food, doesn’t matter if you have water, doesn’t matter if you have shelter. If you’re worried about somebody robbing you or injuring you, or maybe even murdering you, you need public safety. And that’s what I did for 30 years.”

As for specific policies related to public safety, Palmer said he would want to change the penalty for speeding 40 or more miles above the speed limit to a mandatory license suspension and jail term.

Palmer also pledged to fight new taxes.

According to his campaign website, Palmer supports increasing pay and benefits for state police, implementing mandatory jail time for offenses including the illegal use of a firearm and felony animal abuse charges; funding school choice; and asking people to specify a reason before they can use voting by mail ballots, instead of sending all active voters a mail ballot automatically.

Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on Twitter.