Yeager facing political newcomer in Assembly District 9 race

Assemblyman Steve Yeager, D-Las Vegas, who may be speaker if he’s re-elected to his Assembly District 9 post, is being challenged by political newcomer Ryan Fleming.

Yeager, an attorney first elected in 2016, said the pandemic forced the Assembly to go into special session in 2020, and in 2021 the focus was still on rebounding from the pandemic.

“I think we did some good work the last couple of years but I also think the pandemic really made it difficult to continue to move the state forward in the way that I would like,” Yeager said.

His priorities for the 2023 session if he wins re-election include improving the school system with legislation that helps kids prepare to step into jobs that are available in Nevada and keep them in the state.

In addition, lowering prescription drug costs and attracting more providers are improvements he’d like to make to health care in the state.

Yeager said, if elected, he’d want to continue addressing climate issues that affect Nevadans.

“How that’s going to continue to impact our environment,” Yeager said. “I’m just really proud of the work we’ve done to be able to transition to renewable energy to try to limit the amount of carbon that were putting into the atmosphere and I think we’ve done a good job of that because when you look at places like Texas for instance, they’re dealing with rolling blackouts because their grid just can’t handle what’s happening there.”

Ryan Fleming

The political newcomer said he’s enjoying the process so far but acknowledged moving to the general election was akin to “going out of the minor leagues and into the big leagues.”

“If experience was so paramount, this gentleman would be steering this ship in a better direction,” Fleming said of Yeager.

His No. 1 priority is public safety saying that crime will deter businesses from coming to the state and push residents to move away.

“It’s hard not put it all on the other side because they’ve been the ones that have been in charge and they’ve been very quiet about a lot of this,” Fleming said. Democrats have controlled both houses of the Legislature since 2016.

His solution to maintaining enough jobs in the state with the trend toward automation is to make the state more welcoming to blockchain businesses.

“Nevada needs to compete for all sorts of jobs and tech is the ideal scenario,” Fleming said.

One idea Fleming floated was renaming Primm to Kraken, Nevada after the San Francisco-based crypto exchange to make the border city a hub for blockchain businesses.

“We have to diversify and we have to have those forward-thinking jobs,” Fleming said.

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @davidwilson_RJ on Twitter.