Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Dina Titus announces bid for Congress in undetermined district

Updated Tuesday, July 19, 2011 | 8:59 p.m.

Dina Titus

Dina Titus

Dina Titus is running for Congress in a yet-to-be-named district of Nevada.

Titus has long maintained that she’d be back on the ticket in Nevada to make a second run at Congress. Even though there’s no clear district yet for her to run in, she made her candidacy official Tuesday, hopping on the bandwagon that was put in motion Monday when Nevada Assembly Speaker John Oceguera said he would run.

“I have been proud to serve Nevada, stand up for working families, and fight back against Wall Street banks that have walked away with billions while our communities suffer,” Titus said in her statement. “It is clear that Southern Nevadans are still hurting and need someone who will do what’s right for them.”

Titus used to represent Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, but she lost the seat after one term to Republican Joe Heck.

Resuming her candidacy does not mean Titus is heading for a re-match with Heck. There are three districts in the southern part of the state in need of a Democratic candidate, and while Heck’s race is likely to pose the steepest challenge, it’s not clear who will be tapped to step up to that plate.

But even if Titus isn’t destined for the marquee electoral fight, she’s already throwing punches at the Republicans.

“Instead of following through on their promise to concentrate on jobs, Republicans have attacked seniors, working families, women, and the most vulnerable among us,” Titus said in her statement.

“They have pursued an extreme agenda that would end Medicare as we know it and cut Social Security benefits in order to continue giving tax breaks to Big Oil and millionaires,” she said. “That is why I am joining the fight for a brighter future and a stronger Nevada. There is too much at stake not to do so.”

Titus summarized her platform as three key priorities: helping Nevada homeowners avoid foreclosure, investing in the renewable energy sector to create jobs and working to protect Medicare and Social Security.

National Republicans are already leaping on Titus as well.

"Nevada voters already rejected Dina Titus' voting record of reckless spending and higher taxes. The fact that Titus thinks she can win back the hearts of Nevada voters after supporting Nancy Pelosi's job-killing agenda shows how out-of-touch she is with Nevada's struggling working families," said Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Prior to her stint in Congress, Titus spent 20 years in the Nevada Assembly and Senate. She was, until recently, also working as a professor of political science at UNLV but took a buyout earlier this summer.

Last Friday, she also resigned her position on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission — a body to which she was appointed by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid earlier this year — to clear her way to this announcement. Commission members are not allowed to run for public office while they serve on that body.

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