Heather Goulding, running for District 27 of the Nevada State Assembly, rides bikes whenever and wherever she can, including on her commutes, and with big tires, she handles all weather and steep inclines.
Goulding, who works in utility energy efficiency programs, is bringing that can do spirit to her campaign to become a representative for a district encompassing portions of the North Valleys including Panther Valley and Sun Valley.
The seat opened after incumbent Angie Taylor decided to run for Nevada’s state senate. Goulding quickly points to other well know Democratic women who have held the northern district’s elected position, including Sheila Leslie and Teresa Benitez-Thompson.
Goulding says two experiences in her own career led her to want to be an elected representative.
The first is related to accomplishments but also frustrations when raising money to provide for uninsured women dealing with the risks of breast cancer.
“Basically, we tried to make sure that uninsured women didn't have to make a choice between putting food on the table and finding out if they had cancer or not,” she says.
“So that was a great job. But ultimately it felt like we were hosting pink galas and we were having 5k runs of people dressing up in pink tutus and it felt like we were kind of throwing glorified bake sales to solve a problem that was much, much bigger than that. Ultimately it felt like we were trying to patch holes with bubble gum and duct tape into a big, big problem.”
Later she helped a friend bring a National Guard program to Nevada to address the high number of local high school dropouts.
“It’s a program that helps kids that are credit deficient. So when kids are credit deficient in high school, it's almost impossible to pull yourself out of that hole. And if you don't finish high school, you don't get over that finish line. It's a real problem for the rest of your life,” she said.
With her friend as citizen lobbyists they worked through the 2019 legislative session, bringing stories of kids that had participated in the program in California, all the way to having the Battle Born Youth Challenge program established in the Silver State.
“It was a thrill to see the governor sign that bill. It's very satisfying after working for months and months and months on a project, the governor signed the bill, but that was really not the prize. The prize was this program,” she says.
At a recent high school graduation ceremony, a mother leaned over to tell Goulding the program had saved her son’s life.
“It takes really digging into these complex problems and trying to understand, well what's feasible for us to carve out and affect solutions. And I can see that government can work,” she says.
Goulding who grew up outside Chicago came to Reno with her husband in the early 1990s when he started working as a professor at UNR in the biology department. Their three kids were raised here, and her family loves the outdoors, from skiing to cycling to walking nature trails.
The time was right for her to run with her kids now grown up.
Her initial press release when she started her campaign indicated that “we have seen an assault on abortion rights, democracy and the prosperity of our neighbors.” Other issues she mentioned in our interview were expanding affordable housing and sustainable energy programs.
Her website includes concerns about pedestrian safety and abandoned vehicles.
“I think it's important to get out there and vote, so find out about the people that are running,” she said at the conclusion of our interview. “You know, Google your candidates and find out what makes them tick and call and tell them what you think.”
Her phone number is on her website at voteheatherg.com and Goulding says she’s already ready to answer and listen as “a sponge” before thinking through what solutions might work.
As she’s gone around knocking on doors in District 27, she says she’s been surprised that front of mind for many voters, including from older generations, is climate change.
“I had not anticipated that folks in their seventies and eighties were going to be as focused on climate change,” she says. “People are concerned and quite frankly a bit frightened about how dysfunctional the government is. And this is, again, another reason that's important to me to run is there's a lot of craziness in Washington. There's a lot of not working very well in Washington, and I don't want that to happen here in Nevada. And I think that you need to be willing to sort of lean in and say, right, if we can complain about this or you know, I want a seat at the table to have a calm, reasonable voice. And if nobody's willing to do that, we're not going to have calm, reasonable voices at the table,” she says.