Barbara Katherine Cegavske (née Jewson; born August 27, 1951) is an American

businesswoman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

, who is the former

Secretary of State of Nevada The Secretary of State of Nevada is a statewide elected office in the State of Nevada. The secretary of state post is common to many U.S. states. In Nevada, it is a constitutional office (i.e., it is mandated by the Constitution of Nevada). Th ...

from 2015 to 2023. She was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Nevada Senate The Nevada Senate is the upper house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of U.S. state of Nevada, the lower house being the Nevada Assembly. It currently (2012–2021) consists of 21 members from single-member districts. In the pr ...

, representing Clark County District 8
map
from 2002 to 2014. Previously, she served in the

Nevada Assembly The Nevada Assembly is the lower house of the Nevada Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Nevada, the upper house being the Nevada Senate. The body consists of 42 members, elected to two-year terms from single-member district ...

from 1996 to 2001. According to her legislative biography, she was educated at

Mayo High School Mayo High School (Mayo) is a public high school in Rochester, Minnesota, United States. It is named after the brothers William James Mayo and Charles Horace Mayo, physicians and founders of the Mayo Clinic. It is a public school and part of th ...

in Rochester, Minnesota, and at

Clark County Community College The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) is a public community college in Clark County, Nevada. The college has more than 2,500 teaching and non-teaching staff and is the largest public college or university in Nevada. It is part of the Nevada Syst ...

(now known as the College of Southern Nevada) in Las Vegas. With her husband, Tim, she was a

7-11 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

convenience store franchisee for thirteen years before seeking political office. Cegavske is a member of the

American Legislative Exchange Council The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments in the United State ...

(ALEC), serving as Nevada state leader in 2012. Cegavske successfully ran for the office of

in 2014, defeating Democratic state treasurer

Kate Marshall Kathleen Marie Marshall (née Soltero; born July 22, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 35th lieutenant governor of Nevada from 2019 to 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party and was previously the Nevada state tr ...

. Cegavske supports

voter ID laws A voter identification law is a law that requires a person to show some form of identification in order to vote. In some jurisdictions requiring photo IDs, voters who do not have photo ID often must have their identity verified by someone els ...

and opposes

same-day voter registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...

. She was reelected in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, very narrowly defeating Democrat

Nelson Araujo Nelson Araujo (born October 24, 1987) is an American politician. He served as a Democratic member of the Nevada Assembly. Early life Araujo was born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1987. His parents were refugees from the Salvadoran Civil War. He was ra ...

. With the defeat of several fellow Republicans in that election, Cegavske became the only member of her party holding statewide elected office in Nevada. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

lost while refusing to concede, Cegavske was censured by the

Nevada Republican Party The Nevada Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in Nevada. The organization has a history that goes back to 1864. The party currently controls Nevada's governorship and lieutenant governorship, which are currently held by Jo ...

for not having conducted an investigation into allegations of fraud and for "dismissive public statements regarding election integrity concerns."

Electoral history

Cegavske was elected in 1996 to the Nevada Assembly from the Clark County 5th District.

References

External links

*
Nevada State Legislature – Senator Barbara Cegavske
–official government website *
Project Vote Smart – Senator Barbara Cegavske (NV)
profile * ''Follow the Money'' – Barbara Cegavske *
200620042002200019981996
campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Cegavske, Barbara 1951 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians College of Southern Nevada alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Nevada Assembly Methodists from Nevada Republican Party Nevada state senators People from Faribault, Minnesota Politicians from Carson City, Nevada Politicians from Las Vegas Secretaries of State of Nevada Women state legislators in Nevada