Las Vegas councilwoman running for Commissioner Justin Jones’ seat

Councilwoman Victoria Seaman is forgoing re-election in Las Vegas and launching a campaign for a contested Clark County Commission seat.

This week, Seaman announced her intention to challenge Commissioner Justin Jones, who represents District F in the west and southwest Las Vegas Valley.

“When I got elected into the City Council, I had goals for my ward,” she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “And we’ve accomplished those goals.”

Seaman said that Jones’ constituents are “looking for a real leader.”

Jones recently said that he’s running for re-election. Formal candidate filing will take place in March 2026.

“It has been an honor to serve this community on the Clark County Commission and I am proud to be running for re-election to represent District F, which my family and I have called home for more than two decades,” he wrote in a statement. “With a groundswell of support from residents across my district, I will continue fighting to make Clark County the best place to live, work and raise a family.”

Seaman is running as a Republican.

Jones, a Democrat, recently survived a challenge to his law license by the State Bar of Nevada who accused him of misconduct related to a controversial housing development on Blue Mountain Hill.

The county last year settled legal battle with developer Jim Rhodes’ Gypsum Resources LLC, which cost taxpayers $80 million.

Seaman cited the settlement as a motivation to run, saying, “I think constituents deserve better.”

She said she moved to District F, a little over three miles from her previous residence in Clark County District C, in March.

Jones declined to comment on Seaman’s bid or her comments.

‘Where I stand on the issues’

The councilwoman served in the Nevada Assembly from 2014 to 2016 before losing a bid for the state senate against current Sen. Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas.

Seaman won her council seat in a special election in 2019 and won re-election in 2022. She ran for mayor but lost to Mayor Shelley Berkley in November.

She said she faced an “uphill battle” in that race, which prepared her for her next campaign having debated 10 times.

“The people of Southern Nevada know where I stand on the issues,” Seaman said.

Her current term ends next year.

At the City Council, she long stood alone advocating for a settlement of the litigation related to the defunct Badlands golf course.

A three-way deal that closed this year cost Las Vegas taxpayers $286 million to settle three remaining lawsuits. A fourth suit resolved last year cost the city $64 million.

EHB Cos. alleged in court that the city took the 250-acre property by not allowing it to build a planned housing project. Multiple judges, including the Nevada Supreme Court, agreed.

As a commissioner, Seaman said she would continue advocating for property rights so that Badlands or Blue Mountain Hill don’t happen again.

She’s been an outspoken animal advocate and would continue doing so, pushing for a new shelter, Seaman said.

To help the local economy, she said she would look to speed up processes for entrepreneurs to get licensing in a more timely manner.

She’s promoted small businesses as councilwoman and wants Clark County to be more “business friendly,” she said.

Seaman said she supports federal efforts to transfer public lands for affordable housing developments and that it’s “important to talk about conservation.”

Incumbent

Before being elected to the commission, Jones was an attorney representing a conservation group that opposed the Gypsum’s project.

The bar’s complaints focused on an alleged “illicit” deal between commission candidate Jones and then-former Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak to come out against the development, and also the mass deletion of text messages from Jones’ cellphone after a crucial vote in 2019 after he had joined the board.

An independent panel unanimously ruled that the interaction between both Democrats as “political activity” and not a “bribe” as the bar had alleged.

Jones acknowledged deleting the messages but his attorney told the panel that it had been done as a “political cleansing” to move past the controversy.

Jones later described the action as a “stupid” mistake. He received a public reprimand.

Jones was elected to the Nevada Senate in 2012, losing re-election two years later. He won his commission chair in 2018 and won re-election four years later.

“Commissioner Jones has championed several issues including access to behavioral health resources, economic diversification, addressing climate change, and building more community parks and trails,” according to his biography.

Seaman said she’s leaving Ward 2 in an “excellent place.”

“I would do the same in Clark County (District) F,” she added.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.