Ruben Kihuen

Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal (born April 25, 1980) is an American politician and former member of the United States House of Representatives for NV's 4th congressional district, serving from 2017 to 2019.

His family moved to the United States in 1988.

Kihuen's grandfather was an immigrant to Mexico from Lebanon who married a native Mexican.

His father Armando Kihuen was a laborer in Orange County, California, before moving to Las Vegas in the 1990s and becoming a middle school science teacher.

Kihuen attended Rancho High School and was named the 1997–1998 Nevada "soccer player of the year."

Ruben graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

While in high school and college, Kihuen volunteered for the campaigns of Senator Harry Reid, Virginia Governor Mark Warner, and Houston Mayor Lee Brown.

In 2002, Kihuen became a deputy field director for the Nevada Democratic Party.

He then served as regional representative to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

He then worked as student recruiter and academic advisor for the College of Southern Nevada (CSN).

He is a past member of the Clark County Community Development Advisory Committee and the North Las Vegas Citizen's Advisory Committee.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was a member of the Nevada Senate from 2006 to 2016.

He was Nevada's first Latino member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Kihuen described himself as the first "Dreamer" elected to Congress.

Kihuen was first elected to the State Assembly in 2006, defeating incumbent Bob McCleary by a large margin (and with the support of the AFL-CIO) in a 3-way primary.

The primary was shrouded by a scandal surrounding McCleary's payment of $500 to David Adams, the third candidate in the race, who had briefly dropped out after the payment; Adams described the payment as a bribe while McCleary insisted that the payment had been compensation to work on his campaign.

Kihuen was unopposed in the general election.

Kihuen served two terms before successfully running in 2010 to the Nevada State Senate after the incumbent was term-limited.

As of 2011, Kihuen was enrolled in the Master of Public Administration degree program at the University of Oklahoma.

During the 76th legislative session in 2011 he was the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth and Employment.

In September 2011, Kihuen announced his intention to run to represent Nevada's 1st congressional district but withdrew a month before filing opened in February 2012, allowing former Representative Dina Titus to run without a contested primary.

In the 77th legislative session in 2013, he chaired the Senate Standing Committee on Revenue and Economic Development and served as Majority Whip for the Democrats in the Senate.

On March 28, 2015, Kihuen announced he was running for Congress in NV's 4th congressional district, seeking to defeat first-term incumbent Republican Cresent Hardy.

The woman, who joined Kihuen's campaign in June 2015 and left in April 2016, alleges that Kihuen's behavior began in February, that he repeatedly requested that she go on dates or have sexual intercourse with him, and on two occasions forcibly touched her thighs without consent.

Upon resigning from the campaign in April, the woman reported to a mid-level staffer at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that Kihuen had made her feel "uncomfortable", without offering any further details.

The mid-level staffer proceeded to confer with another mid-level staffer, who in turn called Kihuen's campaign manager, Dave Chase, and informed him of the woman's discomfort around Kihuen.

Chase then confronted Kihuen, who denied that anything had occurred.

He defeated seven other candidates in the Democratic primary on June 14, 2016.

Kihuen spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the only 2016 House recruit to do so.

During the campaign, Kihuen was on leave from his job at the Las Vegas-based public relations firm the Ramirez Group.

Kihuen was criticized early in the campaign for still residing in the 1st district rather than the 4th.

Kihuen won the election by a vote of 128,680 (48.5%) to 118,220 (44.5%).

While Hardy carried six of the district's seven counties, Kihuen easily defeated Hardy in the district's share of Clark County, winning it by over 24,000 votes.

In addition to the finance director's conversation with the DCCC operative, she also documented Kihuen's behavior in a series of March 10, 2016 text messages to a friend, and shared contemporaneous details of her departure with four other individuals at the time.

When asked about the accusations, Kihuen said, "I sincerely apologize for anything that I may have said or done that made her feel uncomfortable".

In December 2017, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Kihuen to resign in response to sexual misconduct allegations against him by a female campaign staff member, as reported by BuzzFeed.

On December 1, 2017, a 25-year-old woman who served as finance director of Kihuen's 2016 congressional campaign accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted touching.

On December 13, 2017, a second woman accused Kihuen of sexual misconduct.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Nevada Independent that he touched her thighs or butt in three separate incidents, and has sent her hundreds of sexually suggestive text messages.

He refused to resign but did not run for reelection in 2018.

Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico.