Nevada lawmakers and labor leaders pay tribute to Dolores Huerta, recalling her advocacy and ties to the state

What happened

Civil rights and labor activist Dolores Huerta died Wednesday at age 96, according to the Nevada Current. Nevada lawmakers and organizers responded with messages of condolence, describing her as an inspirational trailblazer. Several also pointed to the work she did in Nevada and the ways the state has tried to recognize her.

Who Huerta was

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers in the 1960s and helped organize migrant farm workers on large grape farms in California, the Nevada Current reported. Her influence reached well beyond that state. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

For more on her life and career, see our earlier coverage of the United Farm Workers co-founder's death.

How Nevada leaders responded

State lawmakers

Democratic Assemblymember Cecelia González chairs the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus. She called Huerta "a voice for the voiceless, a fighter for working families," according to the Nevada Current. González said Huerta's rallying cry was more than a phrase: "Her words, 'Sí se puede,' were never just a slogan."

Labor organizers

Susie Martinez is executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada state AFL-CIO. She told the Nevada Current that some Nevada labor leaders got where they are "because of the foundation Dolores Huerta created." Martinez said Huerta's courage would keep inspiring organizers to "never stop fighting for working people."

Congressional delegation

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen said no one matched Huerta's ability to engage and energize the community. "She touched so many lives throughout her decades of service, fighting to advance the rights of immigrants, women, and farm workers," Rosen said, as quoted by the Nevada Current.

Huerta's ties to Nevada

A 2021 push to end the death penalty

Huerta visited Nevada to join various campaigns and spoke in support of state legislative efforts, the Nevada Current reported. In 2021 she backed a bill to abolish the death penalty. In a video message to legislators, she said "in Nevada 40% of the people on death row are persons of color, most of them Black." The bill passed the Assembly on a party-line vote. It then died in the Democratic-controlled Senate without a hearing.

A resource center in North Las Vegas

In 2025, the City of North Las Vegas opened the Dolores Huerta Resource Center in her honor. The facility offers bilingual support services, workforce development and mental health resources, according to the Nevada Current. Local reaction to her death is also covered in our report on Nevada leaders mourning Huerta.

A vetoed state holiday

Also in 2025, Democratic Assemblymember Cinthia Zermeño Moore and other lawmakers sponsored Assembly Bill 98. The bill would have required the governor to proclaim April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day. It passed with bipartisan support, but Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed it, writing that "there is no need to codify additional days into law," the Nevada Current reported.

Moore responded to Huerta's death by pointing back to that bill. "No veto can diminish her contributions to our country and the generations she inspired," she said in a statement. More stories on local residents and institutions are in our community section.

What to watch next

• Nevada has no state law designating a Dolores Huerta Day. Lombardo vetoed Assembly Bill 98 in 2025, according to the Nevada Current.
• The 2021 bill to abolish Nevada's death penalty, which Huerta supported, passed the Assembly but was killed in the Senate without a hearing.
• The Dolores Huerta Resource Center in North Las Vegas, opened in 2025, offers bilingual support, workforce development and mental health services.