Teresa Benitez-Thompson

Teresa Benitez-Thompson waited tables to help pay for college, then used scholarship money from Miss Nevada and Miss America competition to help finance a social work master's degree at Michigan.¹ Her family includes her husband, four children, dogs and birds, and she enjoys getting outside for hikes with the family pets.¹

Her professional career included finding adoptive families for children with special needs and a decade supporting people with terminal illnesses.¹ She traces her political involvement to helping her family advocate for food assistance rules that would allow a young parent to continue attending school, an early experience speaking at the Legislature.¹

Benitez-Thompson won election to Nevada's Assembly in 2010 and served for 12 years, including multiple terms as majority leader.¹ After reaching the Legislature's term limit, she became chief of staff to Attorney General Aaron Ford, extending her work from lawmaking into the administration of a statewide legal office.¹

Her congressional platform emphasizes affordable health care, groceries and housing, community safety and immigration reform, while criticizing federal enforcement that separates families.² She faces Republican David Flippo and Independent American Party candidate Lynn Chapman in the Second District, an open seat created by Representative Mark Amodei's retirement and a chance for northern Nevada to choose new representation.³