VOTE TAHOE BLUE

Teresa Benitez-Thompson, our candidate for Congressional District 2, began her professional career as a social worker, arranging adoptive families for special needs children, including a decade of work supporting terminally ill patients. Advocating for others drove her to run for state assembly in 2010; where she spent 12 years working on issues that matter to families, seniors, workers, and the Northern Nevada region as a whole. She served multiple terms as Majority Leader of the assembly.

After being termed out of the legislature, Teresa served as Chief of Staff to Attorney General Aaron Ford. In this position, she used her skills in public policy and government to help fight for Nevadans’ legal protections, including the work combating the Trump Administration’s policies this last year. Teresa is running for Congress now that we have a chance to make a change to get real representation for Northern Nevada, and to fight for families and affordability.  

Teresa earned her BA from the University of Nevada, Reno and her MA in Social Work from the University of Michigan. She lives in old Southwest Reno with her husband and four children, dogs and birds. Learn more about Teresa at electteresa.com.

Aaron Ford, Nevada Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidate, knows what it means to fight for a better life, because he’s lived it. Born into a working-class family, public education gave him a path forward earning his law degree and a PhD in education. From being a public school teacher, he clerked for two Federal judges, rose to law firm partner in Las Vegas, ran successfully for the Nevada State Senate, served as Nevada’s Senate Majority Leader, and in 2019, became Nevada's Attorney General.
 
As Attorney General, Aaron has taken on powerful interests --- and won --- recovering more than $1 billion from Big Pharma to fight the opioid crisis, cracking down on housing speculators and rent-gouging scams, and returning millions to Nevadans through consumer protection cases. He has sued insurance companies trying to deny coverage and has prioritized lowering costs for Nevadans — going after corporate landlords who are illegally jacking up prices and pricing out families. He has also expanded reproductive freedoms, defended public education, and delivered bipartisan wins on public safety. Now, Aaron is running for Governor to build a Nevada where every family, no matter their zip code or background, has the chance not just to get by, but to get ahead.
 
Aaron lives in Las Vegas with his wife Berna, an attorney, and their three sons. Learn more about Aaron at fordfornevada.com.

Cisco Aguilar, our candidate for re-election to the office of Nevada Secretary of State, also serves as the Chair for the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. As NV Secretary of State, Cisco has focused on modernizing, innovating and building transparency in the office. Under his leadership, the office took on two major technology projects to modernize the state’s elections and business filings. The business filing system is making business easier in Nevada, and the statewide voter registration system increases security and streamlines the voter experience. 

Prior to his election in 2022, Cisco served twelve years as General Counsel for the management company for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. In 2020, the he launched Blueprint Sports, a sports technology startup. Passionate about education, he is the Founding Chairman of Cristo Rey St. Viator High School that provides a vulnerable neighborhood in Las Vegas with an innovative workforce development program.

Cisco has a BS in finance and accounting and joint MBA-Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Arizona.  Learn more about Cisco at cisconv.co.

Nicole Cannizzaro, our candidate for NV Attorney General, was born and raised in Las Vegas, where her parents worked as a bartender and a waitress. She was the first in her family to go to college, attending University of Nevada, Reno and UNLV’s Boyd School of Law. Cannizzaro served as a prosecutor in the Clark County District Attorney’s Office for eleven years, including as Chief Deputy in the Gang Unit. First elected to the State Senate in 2016, she became the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader during the 2019 session.

As a deputy district attorney, Nicole prosecuted cases that took down criminal gangs that defrauded Nevadans and brought violence into communities. In the legislature, she put public safety front and center: protecting local police departments from budget cuts, cracking down on fentanyl trafficking, and passing new laws to target AI generated child pornography and child predators.

She and her husband, Nate, live in Las Vegas with their three sons. Learn more about Nicole at nicolecannizzaro.com.