LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill says Nevada's Democratic establishment has mostly ignored her bid for governor.
The front-runner in the race — Attorney General Aaron Ford — has declined to debate her before the June 9 primary election. And while she says she hasn't received pushback from Democatic leaders as much as indifference, she says the party, and the state, need a shakeup.
WATCH | Hill: Voters want change, and that's me
"We were looking at real changes in the party, were looking at the party elite being completely disconnected by the everyday voter," she said. "We did a poll in December, 80 some odd percent of Democrat primary voters are not happy with the party, and so I think that not being in the establishment is actually the way to go this election cycle."
Voters, Hill adds, "...want to see change in this state, and they're not happy with where we're going. They're concerned about the future of the country, about the future of the state, and I think I'm running against some very powerful people. I'm running against Aaron Ford, the sitting AG. I'm running against the sitting governor. There is quiet support for me but people are scared to openly go out because they don't want to get in trouble."
But that hasn't stopped Hill from campaigning all around the state, in town halls, in voter meet-ups, in news conferences and interviews.
And while she has some agreements with fellow Democrat Ford, they have some important differences as well, on taxes, for example, or on incentives for businesses moving to Nevada.
On the same page
Hill and Ford both oppose a proposed constitutional amendment to require voter ID when casting a ballot. The measure — proposed by a voter initiative — passed with 73% of the vote in 2024 and if approved again in November will become law and take effect in advance of the 2028 elections.
"I'm not going to vote for that. I think it's a form of a poll tax," she said in an interview with Channel 13. "They forget that we require ID when you first register to vote, that we already do this. We're actually asking for duplication and making it harder on folks who have extenuating circumstance that we should make sure have access to our democracy."
And they're both against another initiative that's gathering signatures now that would ban biological men from playing in women's sports. Ford says he personally doesn't support that idea, but strongly opposes putting a ban in the constitution. But Hill has a different reason for her stance.
"I will not vote for that. I have several trans members in my family who have actually participated in the gender of their choosing in sports, and I think [the initiative is] othering an entire group of Nevadans and making it difficult for them to even participate in the sport of their choosing," she says.
And both oppose moving the mail ballot deadline up, so that all ballots could be in and counted by Election Day. Instead, Hill says, the state should make sure local registrars of voters and county clerks have the staff and equipment to more efficiently count ballots and to allow counting to commence sooner, with results secured until after polls close on Election Day.
"They [voters] have been voting the way they have been voting since 2020, and so I think adjusting that is really going to confuse Nevadans," she says. "Making sure that it's postmarked by Election Day makes sense. I actually think that's a great policy."
Taxes
But the agreements between the candidates end when it comes to taxes. Ford said he agrees with Gov. Joe Lombardo, who has pledged not to raise taxes, but blames the Republican governor and President Donald Trump for an economy that has stressed workers to the breaking point.
For Hill, however, taxes are most definitely on the table.
"I don't believe in taxes for working Nevadans. We pay a disproportionate amount of taxes for gas tax and sales tax and vehicle registration tax," she says. "But I do believe in taxing billionaires and corporations, and most Nevadans agree with that. And when you hear from the sitting governor and Aaron Ford that they want to just have no new taxes, what they're saying is they're going to cut. And that means if our economy is struggling today, just wait until you cut government services."
For Hill, gaming companies and mining interests could stand to pay more, as well as corporations that purchase hundreds or thousands of homes in Nevada, which can price would-be homebuyers out of the market.
In fact, she says, implementing taxes is her top priority.
"Raising revenues to support Nevadans, because we really are in a crisis," she says. "We have been saved by very positive economic headwinds after COVID, and also all of the federal money that was dumped into the state, and now we are facing the reality of our broken structural deficit situation with our budget."
Corporate incentives
Ford and Hill also part ways somewhat when it comes to incentives to lure businesses to Nevada. They both say the details of any such deals must be scrutinized, to ensure they make sense for taxpayers.
But Hill is far more skeptical of corporate handouts, especially to big companies that require the use of government social services. (She notes Amazon, Tesla and Walmart have many employees who qualify for state Medicaid benefits.)
She says the companies that get benefits need to pay their fair share in taxes, and be monitored to ensure they're living up to the promises they made when they moved to the state in the first place.
"We should make sure that if we do these deals, that we hold these corporations accountable for what the deals are," she said. "We have got to make sure that if we are incentivizing companies to come to our state, that they are actually paying people a living wage, and that these are long-term really good deals for Nevada."
She opposed a $1.8 billion transferable tax credit program designed to lure a film tax studio to Summerlin, which failed in the regular 2025 session and a special session in November. Ford, while he was serving in the state senate, was the author of the original film tax credit program, but that was capped at $10 million, well short of last year's proposal.
Hill also says the state needs to consider the long-term consequences of incentives: In Washoe and Storey counties, the addition of a Tesla gigafactory has caused increased traffic and driven up home prices in Reno.
Housing
Hill and Ford both back a cap on how many homes corporate entities can purchase. Lombardo vetoed a bill by state Sen. Dina Neal, D-Clark County, that would have done just that, but then Trump issued an executive order embracing the idea.
Hill supports not only taxing those homes at the higher commercial property tax rate, but also treating all corporate-owned homes as a single economic entity for purposes of paying the state's commerce tax.
She also said she'd use the governor's emergency powers to impose rent increase caps by executive order until the Legislature could pass a bill regulating how much landlords can raise the rent.
"I would argue we are in a housing crisis in the state, and our homelessness numbers show that absolutely," she said. "And so I think you can temporarily cap the rents while you work with the Legislature, and that is what my proposal is."
Looking to the future
Hill insists she's optimistic about the future, although she's obviously dissatisfied with the present state of things. But she says she believes in Nevada's potential, if the tax system can be adjusted in the way she's suggesting.
"That is why I am running, because I don't think that the status quo is serving us in this state," she says. "I'm running to tax billionaires and corporations, and invest in Nevadans. ... I want to improve things for our everyday Nevadans. I want to ensure that we have investments that make our economy stronger and also ensure that we can diversify our economy, and we can't do that without investing in Nevadans."
In-person early voting for the primary begins Saturday, and runs through June 5. Voters can mail in their ballots, so long as they are postmarked by primary Election Day June 9. (They can also be put into drop boxes that will be at all voting centers around the valley.)
Voters can find more information about the election online, including voting locations, hours and deadlines, on the Clark County Elections Department website.
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