Lucy Flores

Flores decided against seeking reelection to her Assembly seat for the 28th district, choosing instead to run for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada.

Her seat was taken by Edgar Flores (no relation ).

Lucy Flores (born October 24, 1979) is an American lawyer and former politician.

A member of the Democratic Party, she was a member of the Nevada State Assembly representing the 28th district in the eastern Las Vegas Valley from 2010 to 2014.

She earned a J.D. degree from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2010.

While there, she pushed the school to create a course on investigating potential wrongful convictions.

A progressive Democrat, Flores was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 2010, and became vice-chair of the Nevada Hispanic Legislative Caucus in 2012.

She became one of the first Latina members of the Nevada Assembly, representing the neighborhood she grew up in.

She served on the transportation, ways and means, and legislative operations and elections committees.

Flores was honored with the Excellence in Legal Clinics Award by UNLV in 2010 and the Hubbard Award by the Mexican-American Alumni Association of USC in 2007.

Latism named her the best politician at using social media to reach Latinos.

She was reelected in 2012 without opposition.

In 2012, she became an assistant majority whip.

Flores introduced an education bill to use end-of-course final exams in high school rather than Nevada's proficiency exams.

Other bills she introduced were one to allow domestic violence abuse victims to break leases to avoid the abuser, and one that would require professional sporting events to have medical personnel present.

She also helped to organize a conference of teachers and legislators on how to improve education success among Latinos.

She supports expanding early childhood education, and considers education her most important priority as a legislator.

In the 2012 presidential election, Flores was a campaign surrogate for President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, where, among other work, she debated members of the Republican Party on Univision.

While campaigning, Flores was hospitalized for exhaustion.

In 2013, while explaining why she supported a sex education bill, Flores said that she had an abortion when she was 16.

She later received death threats for the statement.

In 2013 she introduced a bill to require chain restaurants to post calorie counts.

The measure passed both houses of the Nevada legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Brian Sandoval.

Flores established a PAC, Impacto Fund, to help elect Latinos in the Southwest United States.

She believed Latinos were underrepresented in politics, and that there should be an effort to recruit and encourage them as candidates.

In 2013, she was named a Rodel Fellow by the Aspen Institute.

She has been affiliated with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the Nevada Council of the Blind, Seniors United, and the Stonewall Democratic Club of Southern Nevada.

She unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor of Nevada in 2014, losing to Republican nominee Mark Hutchison.

Flores was one of 13 children.

Only one brother graduated high school, and all of her sisters became pregnant in their teens.

Flores's mother left her family when she was nine, and her father worked multiple jobs, so she had to care for her younger siblings.

When her mother left, Flores's school performance suffered, and she became involved with local gangs.

She spent months in juvenile detention after stealing a car.

Leslie Camp, Flores's parole officer, became an important role model for her and helped her turn her life around.

Flores's difficult early life informs her political views, and she advocates job retraining and educational opportunities to help others who came from difficult backgrounds.

Flores dropped out of Rancho High School, but passed the GED test.

After working as a receptionist and office manager, she attended the College of Southern Nevada, then transferred to and graduated from the University of Southern California.

In the 2014 Lieutenant Governor of Nevada elections, Flores was defeated by Republican Mark Hutchison in a landslide, 60% to 34%, despite personal appearances by then-vice-president Joe Biden and an endorsement by then-Senate Leader Harry Reid.

The election was seen as particularly important because Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, a Republican, was speculated to possibly vacate his office (after winning the reelection bid) to run for the United States Senate in 2016.

(Contrary to speculation, he opted not to run.)