“Forty-eight of the 63 members of the Nevada state legislature took individual campaign contributions over at least $1,000 from organizations, political action committees, companies, or people with direct ties to realty, residential rentals, and/or real estate. Ten . . . took $10,000 or more . . .”
As the cost of living in the state increased for years, Nevada’s legislature failed to pass rent control. Many in the state say that the real estate lobby is to blame, and a new batch of candidates promise to deliver on the failures of years’ past.
State senator Pat Spearman introduced Senate Bill 426 in the 2023 state legislature, which proposed to cap the amount that landlords in Nevada would be allowed to increase rent per year. Spearman’s bill would have established an official “cost-of-living increase” published by the state Housing Division every year, and rents in Nevada would not be allowed to surpass that figure.
But that bill failed in the Senate Finance Committee, according to sources close to the legislature and legislative records.
While Spearman termed out of her office, a bill similar to the failed Senate Bill 426 was set to be introduced next time the Nevada legislature was to convene, in 2025. A member of the Las Vegas chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) said state senator Michelee Cruz-Crawford was set to introduce this next attempt at rent control in the state.
The Las Vegas DSA canvassed for the bill, according to multiple members of the organization, but the legislation was never introduced by Cruz-Crawford. Cruz-Crawford and Spearman did not respond to requests for comment.
‘It just seems that they care more about themselves’
Members of the DSA said they were told that the senator did not introduce the bill because she missed a deadline, but one member of the organization said it was actually because the political establishment in Nevada opposed passing significant rent control legislation.
“It just seems to me that they care more about themselves and their position and their friendliness with their donors,” a member of the Las Vegas DSA said. “I think they know that it has support. I think they know that it would be politically ugly for them to vote against the bill. So they’re trying to avoid a situation where regular people can see them voting against the bill.”
And records indicate that the vast majority of Nevada’s current legislators have taken money from figures in the real estate industry.
According to all the policymakers’ latest campaign finance reports, 48 of the 63 members of the Nevada state legislature took individual campaign contributions over at least $1,000 from organizations, political action committees, companies, or people with direct ties to realty, residential rentals, and/or real estate. Ten of those legislators took $10,000 or more in campaign contributions over $1,000 from the real estate industry.
Two-thirds of the current legislature are also listed as realtor-friendly candidates on the Nevada Realtors Political Action Committee. The PAC’s website currently includes lists of federal, state, and local candidates in the Nevada that it supports, and 42 of the legislative candidates now have seats in the legislature.
The Nevada Realtors PAC also gave over $60,000 to state candidates in just last year’s elections, according to filings submitted to the secretary of state in 2024.
“Let me be very clear with you, people don’t want to take accountability right now,” President Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1107 branch, Michele Maese, said about the state legislature. “Because they want to make sure that the landlords are still paid, the renters association is paid, the real estate agents are paid. But guess what? The people that are renting the homes, they need to be able to provide for their families still.”
The DSA and SEIU Local 1107 are supporting multiple candidates whose platforms claim to fight for those exact causes.
‘We’re going to put people in office who want to actually work for the people’
In May, after the bill was not even introduced in the 2025 session, multiple members of the Las Vegas DSA protested outside of the Las Vegas Realtors organization’s office to call for rent control. At that protest, the DSA members announced that their organization would launch its own slate of candidates in the upcoming midterms.
The Las Vegas DSA has so far made good on its promise from the summer, with multiple candidates announcing their candidacy for state legislator seats. Many upcoming candidates for the Nevada legislature include rent stabilization in their political platforms as of November 2025.
Candidate for Nevada’s 10th Assembly District Val Thomason made rent control one of the top priorities of her platform, and that sentiment was echoed by many of her fellow progressive state candidates.
One of those candidates is 1st Assembly District Candidate Alexis Esparza, a union steward who launched her campaign with the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union’s Nevada Branch (SEIU Local 1107). When talking about Esparza’s endorsement, SEIU Local 1107 President Michele Maese made clear that she and the union would support candidates who support people’s needs, like affordable housing.
“When you say no to one group, you’re saying yes to another, and who they’re really saying yes to is corporate landlords,” SEIU Local 1107 President Michele Maese said, “they’re saying yes to corporate greed, they’re saying yes to get the rich richer, while everybody else has to suffer and struggle, and that’s not okay. I’m going to tell you we’re going to put people in office who want to actually work for the people that put them in office, period.”
Mark Credico is an independent journalist working in Southern Nevada. He covers subjects including government accountability, homelessness, workers' unions and the environment.
