Nevada’s State Senate District 15 has long been evenly split politically with a slim 1-point advantage for Democrats over Republicans among registered voters, but that changed last year.
Past elections saw some nail-biters, such as in 2012 when Republican Greg Brower topped Democrat Sheila Leslie by just 266 votes.
District 15’s incumbent — Republican Heidi Seevers Gansert — decided not to run for reelection this time after the district boundaries were redrawn to give Democrats a 6-point advantage .
Mike Ginsburg will try to keep the seat in the Republican column, while Democrat Angie Taylor is giving up a chance at re-election to her Assembly seat for the opportunity to serve in the state Senate.
Election Day is Nov. 5. Early voting runs from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1.
Where is Nevada State Senate District 15?
State Senate District 15 includes Sun Valley, northwest Reno and large parts of southwest Reno, stretching from Longley Lane west to Mayberry Drive.
See a map here .
Who is Mike Ginsburg running for Nevada State Senate District 15?
- 3 issues to focus on if elected: Public safety, education, properly addressing emerging technology related to infrastructure and alternative energy
- Age: 61
- Education: Bachelor of arts from the University of Nevada Reno, associate's degree in drafting technology from Truckee Meadows Community College
- Occupation: Manager of distribution design at NV Energy
- Political experience: Never held political office, but served as chair of the Reno Parks and Recreation Commission
- Political affiliation: Republican
- Family: Married with 3 daughters
- Money raised in 2024 : $88,000 (cash on hand: $48,000)
- Biggest donors: Senate Republican Leadership Conference, Alan Humphrey, Atlantis Casino, Keystone Corp., Heidi Gansert for Senate
Who is Angie Taylor running for Nevada State Senate District 15?
- 3 issues to focus on if elected: Improving education; protecting a woman's right to choose; healthcare — prescription drug costs, access and affordability
- Age: 61
- Education: PhD in educational leadership
- Occupation: Consultant
- Political experience: Washoe County School District board of trustees from 2014 to 2022, Nevada State Assembly District 27 since 2022
- Family: Single, caregiver for 81-year-old mother
- Money raised in 2024 : $180,000 (cash on hand: $41,000)
- Biggest donors: Wynn Resorts, Nguyening Leadership, MGM Resorts, Nevada Conservation League, Battle Born & Raised Leadership PAC
What is one change you'd make to Nevada’s education system that wouldn't cost more money?
• Mike Ginsburg: I think we need to make sure everybody's accountable with a child's education. So what's not going to cost money is making sure that everybody's accountable, from the administration to the teachers to the parents to the students. That's the only way you're going to get the grades up.
If one person basically doesn't do their job, then an education could be lost.
Another thing that wouldn't really cost any money is basically just transferring money. I think you need to have school choice. A child's education should not be defined by their zip code.
What this does is it brings on competition. If you're basically forced to compete with other education styles or places where (students) could go to, I think that would maybe force us to step up our game (in the school districts) when it comes to the education of our kids.
• Angie Taylor: Reduce class sizes. It will not cost more money.
I'm going to make up some numbers, but let’s say Nevada is allocating $13,000 a student, and let’s say Washoe County has 60,000 students. That’s $780 million.
That amount wouldn't change if you added more teachers.
How Washoe County School District allocates that money would be different but you could hire more teachers by budgeting it.
It will certainly take some adjustments, but now that our budgets are higher (after the 2023 Legislature boosted education funding), it gives districts a little bit more room. Our budgets are still not where they need to be but they’re higher.
And those kids are going to be better educated if they have a smaller ratio (of students to teachers).
What aspect of the state’s mental health programs needs the most improvement?
• Ginsburg: I would lean toward making sure we have the doctors. People need to be able to reach out to get help. If we don't have the professionals to help them, then where do they head? We need to attract doctors and other trained professionals to the state.
If they've come here and they've been trained at the university, and then they go away to another state, that's a problem. We need to make sure that we educate and retain the doctors we've trained.
It's a big problem: How do you attract people to go into the field? How do you attract people to stay in the field? How do you attract people to come to our state, and how do you keep them here?
We also need to make sure that people with mental health issues or their families or loved ones know exactly where to go to get the help.
• Taylor: I think the biggest thing we can do to assist with mental health right now is more providers.
One example that can help is having a licensee from one state who moves to Nevada. You make it easier for that licensee to get licensed here, such as for licensed social workers, psychologists, school psychologists.
Another part is working with programs at our colleges and universities in those areas. How do we support them to get more students in the programs? How do we get the students what they need from a training standpoint?
How can we make the training programs as intensive as they need to be? You need so many hours to get licensed — how can we help with that, expedite it?
And can we incentivize people? Maybe there’s some student loan reimbursement.
Where do you want to see more transparency in state government?
• Ginsburg: When things are pushed through at the last second, that's usually when things can get muddied, and I think there should be a cooling-off period.
The problem is you're trying to do the Legislature within a certain amount of time. To get these bills pushed through, it's not giving people the time — whether it's the citizens or the Assembly or Senate — to be able to actually review them, to see what's buried within them.
If you have 100 pages (of a bill), you'll miss something or somebody has buried something.
I think the only way to do that is to make sure people have the chance to review. If you're pushing a bill through at the last second, there's probably a reason for it.
I don't know all the rules, but I would say there's got to be a period where you’ve got to have (bills) in by this date to give everybody a chance to review it. And if it's not in by a certain time, then it has to be considered in the next session or you pay for a special session to get the bill passed if it’s that important.
I want to make informed decisions. I want to make sure I have all the facts. I want to make sure I've heard anything that could be detrimental to something else because that's really what you don't want to do: cause another problem somewhere else.
• Taylor: I really want to hear from the constituents as to what it is they're missing and what they would like to see.
All of the decision making done (at the Legislature) in Carson City is open in public. But you know what? I don't think that's open enough.
Overall, I'm certainly for increasing involvement. I think that's critically important — increasing people’s feeling that their voice is heard.
I like some of the steps that hung around after COVID: being able to testify if you can't be here in Carson City, being able to call in so that you can listen and so that we can hear your voice.
Because I'm on the inside, it’s hard to say what’s missing. I’d have to see where the gaps are.
But I can certainly say that I support government that is more transparent, that is free, that is fair for everyone to participate.
Candidate responses were edited for length and clarity from phone interviews.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page .
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Election 2024 Q&A: Mike Ginsburg, Angie Taylor running for Nevada State Senate District 15
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