Just last month, Jackeline Duron, 29, was in the running among the three dozen candidates for the Ward 5 Reno City Council seat which fell vacant after Neoma Jordan abruptly stepped down to head the Downtown Reno Partnership non-profit.
Duron was among the top 11 candidates who got at least one vote as part of the internal selection process by council members, minus Jenny Brekhus who boycotted the process.
And then in a flash it was over, despite a stirring speech via Zoom.
At a public meeting on August 25th, after hearing from some of the candidates and their supporters, the Council finally chose Alexander Goff, Elliot Malin and Kathleen Taylor as the top three finalists to move on for community meet and greets ahead of a decisive interview process and announcement on September 7th.
While the three candidates have since talked about the need for affordable housing, Duron has lived experience, having been unhoused while she was a teenager in high school. After her grandmother had a stroke in Central America, her mom left the United States for a while, and the family could no longer afford their apartment. She ended up moving every other week from one place to another, and at one point sleeping in parking lots in an old Saturn her father had bought for her for several hundred dollars.
“When I was unhoused, all I needed was a home,” Duron, who grew up in Sparks, said. “Folks don’t just need me, but they need more of us there,” Duron said of the Council, and having a voice included for low income residents.
Duron believes that the people who are closest to a problem are also closest to providing solutions for it. She says Council will be missing out on her recent experience of balancing multiple jobs and rising rents, and then having to quit school to make money. She also has many links with residents who were previously or are currently undocumented, giving her needed perspectives on vulnerable populations.
“I was able to get one vote from Council member Reese, who I know is a really big supporter of reproductive justice and the Wild West Access Fund,” Duron said of the one vote she did get.
Duron is currently a community organizer and activist fighting for reproductive rights and abortion access in the state of Nevada and nationally. As a woman of color she has also worked on immigration and racial justice issues.
While her day job is with a large reproductive rights organization, she says her passion is serving as board Vice President of the Wild West Access Fund of Nevada. The group, the state’s largest abortion fund, is an all volunteer organization supporting those seeking abortions in Nevada, who are either traveling into the state or who live here and need support.
“We support folks with … travel, if they need it, by either booking their flights or trying to get them gas cards or even things like I did, I think several months ago now, but I drove someone from Reno from their home to West End, which is one of the abortion clinics in town, and stayed with them and drove them home,” she said.
Duron said that following the Supreme Court decision to overturn federal abortion protections, Nevada has seen an influx of travelers coming from nearby restrictive states.
Duron is no longer in the Ward 5 race but with her passion for many hot button issues, she has not given up entirely on the possibility of running for office in the future. She hopes whoever does get selected will place “people before profit.”