Preceded by Bob Coffin Role American Politician Preceded by Bob McCleary Party Democratic Party | Political party Democratic Succeeded by Olivia Diaz Name Ruben Kihuen | |
 | ||
Born April 25, 1980 (age 43)
Guadalajara, Mexico ( 1980-04-25 ) Residence Las Vegas-Paradise, NV Metropolitan Statistical Area Education University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Rancho High School | ||
Nevada senator ruben kihuen interview at longevity sports center
Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal (born April 25, 1980) is an American politician from Nevada who is the U.S. Representative for Nevada's 4th congressional district, serving since 2017. A Democrat, he was previously a member of the Nevada Senate, representing the state's 10th district in Clark County.
Contents
- Nevada senator ruben kihuen interview at longevity sports center
- Early life and education
- Early career
- Nevada legislature
- 2012
- 2016
- Committee assignments
- Caucus memberships
- References
Nevada senator ruben kihuen interview at longevity sports center
Early life and education
Kihuen was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. His family moved to the United States in 1988. Kihuen's father 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." He 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. As of 2011, Kihuen was enrolled in the Master of Public Administration degree program at the University of Oklahoma.
Early career
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.
Nevada legislature
First elected to the state assembly in 2006, Kihuen served two terms before successfully running for the state senate in 2010. In 2010, Kihuen was elected to the Nevada State Senate after the incumbent was term-limited. During the 76th legislative session in 2011 he was the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth and Employment. 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.
2012
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.
2016
On March 28, 2015, Kihuen announced he was running for Congress in Nevada's 4th congressional district, seeking to defeat first-term incumbent Republican Cresent Hardy. 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 won the election by a vote of 128,680 (48.5%) to 118,220 (44.5%).
In 2016, he was elected to serve in the House of Representatives. He was sworn in on January 3, 2017, becoming the first Hispanic Democrat to represent Nevada in the House of Representatives. He is also one of the first two Nevada Hispanic Democrats to represent the state in Congress; Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was sworn in the same day.