Candidate ‘speed dating’ event set to feature local races

The Nye County Democratic Central Committee (Nye County Democratic Party) is holding two evenings of candidate speed dating at the Pahrump Senior Center ahead of the general election with the goal of connecting the community to local candidates.

“It’s a good way for the public to interact with the candidates themselves,” Nye County Democratic Party Chair Ann Underdahl told the Pahrump Valley Times.

The first event on Tuesday, Aug. 4, beginning at 6 p.m. will feature this year’s general election Nye County commissioner contests. The District 4 commissioner race is Republican nominee Debra Thomas versus Independent American Party candidate Anthony Greco. The District 5 commissioner race consists of Republican nominee Matt Sadler and independent/nonpartisan candidate Chris Lally.

“Whether you’re Democrat, Republican, nonpartisan, we’re all facing the same issues,” Underdahl said.

Each commissioner candidate will have a table, where the community in groups can ask questions or share concerns over the course of 10 minutes. Once the time is up, attendees will move to another candidate table. This repeats until each group has visited every candidate’s table.

“It’ll be a community event to learn the issues, not debate them so that when someone decides to vote for a candidate, they can vote with confidence,” Underdahl explained.

The next candidate speed dating event will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6 p.m. and will follow the same format with slightly less time at each table since there will be more candidates. The Aug. 11 event will feature Nye County’s 2026 general election nonpartisan races: Department 1 and Department 2 judges of Nevada’s Fifth Judicial District Court, Pahrump justice of the peace, Department B and Nye County sheriff. Both evenings of candidate speed dating are open to the public.

For more information about the upcoming candidate speed dating events, contact the Nye County Democratic Party at nyecdccchair@gmail.com.

Visit Nye County Nevada Democrats on Facebook for more about the Nye County Democratic Central Committee.

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com