Navy veteran makes run for Congress from Nevada

Las Vegas resident Charles Navarro is the latest candidate to enter Nevada’s 4th U.S. House District race.

Navarro, a six-year resident of Nevada, presently serves as a reservist in the Navy, after serving four-and-a-half years active duty as petty officer first class.

All told, Navarro has served a total of 12 years in the Navy.

He recently visited the Pahrump Senior Center, where he sponsored lunch and spoke with scores of local seniors about his plans for District 4 if elected.

Rural concerns

During the visit, Navarro, a Republican, talked about the importance of reaching out to rural communities while campaigning.

“If you look at the makeup of Congressional District 4, rural communities are going to be the backbone of this entire district, he said. “As a candidate, and as a representative, you got to come out to the rural areas because though most of the population is going to be in Las Vegas, you have to make sure that you’re doing your job adequately and representing, and providing that opportunity to get everyone’s voice heard. Otherwise, as a representative, if you’re not being the voice for the people, and not allowing their opinions or concerns to be heard, what good are you as a representative?”

The issues

Regarding some of the concerns Navarro wants to address as a congressman, he said both land and immigration reform are of utmost importance facing Nevadans.

“Land issues are one of the top things that I hear constantly when I travel throughout the 4th Congressional District,” Navarro said. “It’s the lack of representation that people feel. They don’t think it’s necessarily fair, seeing where things are now, I’m baffled why we’re still dealing with issues that we dealt with years ago. It just goes to show that there needs to be better representation out here. We need to have somebody to go back to Washington, D.C. to be the voice and advocate for better policies and better procedures, and figure out how our local municipalities can better work with BLM in regards to getting land back and so forth.”

On the issue of immigration, Navarro said he believes the situation along America’s southern border is at a crisis level.

“We have a huge immigration population across the Las Vegas Valley, so I think it’s important to make sure that they are being treated adequately and respectfully,” he said. “Having someone to wait up to 10 years to finally become a citizen, if they so choose, is just unreasonable. It’s a very complicated and intricate issue that has a lot of pieces that need to be worked on where it can be brought to the level where it needs to be.”

Providing hope

His penchant for fairness and hope, also put Navarro onto a career path where he worked for a faith-based organization in Las Vegas called Hope For Prisoners, to help ensure recently incarcerated individuals can strengthen the skills necessary for employment, leadership readiness and success during their reintegration process.

During his time there, he oversaw the day-to-day operations within the Clark County Detention Center, while coordinating and managing the curriculum, vocational training, and case management.

“In that capacity, I was primarily responsible in formulating the re-entry program, which includes the curriculum, courses and classes that are taught inside the correctional facilities,” he said. “I was in charge of putting all of that together and making sure that the classes and structure of that program was going to lend itself to success in the end, which I believe it did.

“The recidivism rate that we had was at about eight percent for the people who went through the program. That was one of the key things that I was always looking at, which is analyzing and taking an assessment from the participants who went through it and seeing how effective it was in terms of their thinking and problem-solving skills. I believe people deserve second chances.”

Prior political experience

Prior to joining Hope for Prisoners, Navarro served as the military and veterans affairs representative to then-U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy, R-Nevada, before being promoted to deputy district director where he oversaw external relationships with community leaders and organizations helping to drive community collaborations and policy initiatives.

Navarro earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

He has also completed his P.O.S.T. Level 1 training through Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and previously served on a City Council advisory board, as well as a neighborhood council, for a two-year term among other volunteer and community activities.

Navarro is one of several Republican primary candidates running for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District, encompassing the counties of White Pine, Nye, Mineral, Esmeralda and Lincoln. The district also includes southern Lyon County and northern Clark County.

Challenging Navarro for the position are Nye County Commissioner Leo Blundo, Lisa Song Sutton, former assemblyman Jim Marchant and Sam Peters.

Family matters

Regarding his family, Navarro said he is fortunate to have been married to his wife Allison, who recently gave birth to their first child.

“We’ve been married now for three years, so we just recently celebrated our third-year anniversary, and It’s just been bliss ever since,” he said. “She’s also blessed me with our beautiful daughter Reagan. I never knew or I never thought that I could love somebody more than my wife Allison. Watching Reagan grow up and seeing all of the things that she has developed over the past couple of months, is really special.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com, on Twitter: @pvtimes