Steven Horsford

He became the fourth African American to serve as a state senator since the Nevada legislature first convened in 1864.

Steven Alexzander Horsford (born April 29, 1973) is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Nevada's 4th congressional district since 2019, previously holding the position from 2013 to 2015.

In 1996, he began working at R&R Partners in Las Vegas.

In 2004, incumbent Democratic State Senator Joe Neal, from Clark County's 4th Senate district, decided to retire to run for a seat on the Clark County Commission.

Horsford ran and defeated Republican Mabel Florence Lucier, 72%–28%.

A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the Nevada Senate, representing the 4th district, in Clark County, from 2005 to 2013.

In 2008, he was reelected to a second term with 74% of the vote.

Horsford served in six special sessions and four regular sessions of the Nevada legislature.

Horsford was the first African American to serve as Majority Leader (2009–2013) and the first African American to represent Nevada in Congress.

In February 2009, he became Nevada Senate majority leader.

In November 2009, a Las Vegas television station caught Horsford illegally parking his SUV with his personalized license plate "State Senator 17" in a handicapped parking space at a park for six hours.

The mother of a disabled child noticed the car.

Horsford apologized, saying, "There was no excuse. It should have never happened."

He said that he had made a donation to a nonprofit group in the amount that he would have been fined had he been caught by law enforcement.

In the summer of 2010, Horsford sent a fundraising letter from his PAC soliciting donations in exchange for private meals or receptions to meet with various Democratic legislative leaders and Senate committee chairs.

After criticism that the letter amounted to "pay to play", he apologized and discontinued the solicitation program.

The PokerStars PAC reported making contributions to 48 Nevada lawmakers in 2010.

Horsford and some other legislators later returned the contributions.

In his last session in the Nevada Senate, he served as chair of the Senate Finance Committee and also served on the Senate Committee on Revenue and the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections.

In August 2011, Horsford appointed Senator Mo Denis to lead the caucus election efforts for the 2012 election cycle.

In 2011, web poker company PokerStars treated Horsford to a trip to the Bahamas before the introduction of legislation that would benefit the online gaming industry.

Horsford said, "It was productive. They made a good presentation."

He received $37,500 in campaign contributions from PokerStars.

In October 2011, Horsford announced he would run for Congress, but did not know at the time which district he would run in because the Nevada legislature had not finished the redistricting maps.

He decided to run in the newly created 4th congressional district, which includes the northern portion of Clark County as well as all or part of the rural counties of Lincoln, White Pine, Nye, Esmeralda, Mineral and Douglas.

Horsford was due to face former state Assemblyman John Jay Lee in the Democratic primary, but Lee dropped out in November, effectively handing Horsford the nomination.

He lost to Republican nominee Cresent Hardy in 2014.

After that election, Horsford joined an international Las Vegas-based business and marketing consulting firm, R&R Partners, for which he had worked before his political career.

Horsford received a degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2014.

Horsford was CEO of the Culinary Training Academy, a job training program.

He also served on the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board.

In January 2018, he announced that he would run for the open seat vacated by Democrat Ruben Kihuen in the midterm elections.

In November 2018, he defeated former U.S. Representative Cresent Hardy in a rematch of their 2014 race.

Horsford was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His mother, Pamela Horsford, came to the U.S. from Trinidad in her teens and gave birth to him when she was 17.

While attending Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas, Horsford worked at Pizza Hut and at a veterinarian's office, where he cleaned kennels after hours.

When Horsford was 19, his father, Gary Shelton, was killed.

One report states that Shelton "was shot and killed at work by a man who had tried to rob the store" in North Las Vegas at which he worked as a cook, while another report says he "was killed in a drug incident".

After his father's death, Horsford temporarily returned home from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he had been studying political science and communications.

He returned to college the next year.