Democrats, Republicans alike remember longtime Nevada state Senator Ann O’Connell | Nevada | News | Politics and Government
Democrats, Republicans alike remember longtime Nevada state Senator Ann O’Connell | Nevada | News | Politics and Government # ‘Everybody knew where she stood’: Friends, colleagues remember former Nevada state senator Sen.
reviewjournal.com · September 5, 2026
Democrats, Republicans alike remember longtime Nevada state Senator Ann O’Connell | Nevada | News | Politics and Government
# ‘Everybody knew where she stood’: Friends, colleagues remember former Nevada state senator
Sen. Ann O'Connell looks at a Nevada Revised Statutes book during a committee meeting at the during the 1999 legislative session in Carson City. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Ann O'Connell was an American politician who was a Republican member of the Nevada State Senate. She is the former owner and manager of Christian Supply Centers and Hotel. She is seen in a 1984 Review-Journal portrait. (Jim K Decker/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, discusses new maps on the Senate floor on Thursday, June 14, 2001. (Cathleen Allison)
Ann O'Connell was an American politician who was a Republican member of the Nevada State Senate. She is the former owner and manager of Christian Supply Centers and Hotel. O’Connell is shown with a supporter in an undated photo. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, center, listens to Gov. Kenny Guinn in Carson City in January 2003. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
September 5, 2026 - 8:00 am
Friends, former colleagues and Nevada political leaders are paying tribute to former state Sen. Ann O’Connell — a legislator who earned plaudits from both sides of the aisle during her two decades in office.
O’Connell, 92, died Aug. 21 after representing Clark County’s Senate District 5 from 1984 to 2004. Her 20-year tenure was tied for the longest by a woman in Nevada Senate history, legislative records show.
While O’Connell was a staunch Republican, she was widely respected among her colleagues, regardless of political affiliation, including former Democratic state Sen. and party chair Terry Care, who became good friends with O’Connell.
“Everybody respected Ann O’Connell and her word was as good as could be,” Care said. “Everybody knew where she stood on issues. You took her the way she was, but she always respected the other side.”
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1934, O’Connell was elected at age 50 while serving as an accredited shopping center promotional manager and the owner of Christian Supply Centers and Hotel, according to a legislative biography.
Her political career spanned ten regular legislative sessions in which she regularly served on the Commerce and Labor, Government Affairs and Taxation committees. She also led studies on tax distribution, and pushed for school accountability and suicide prevention.
Care recalled that when O’Connell chaired the government affairs committee, she had a practice that he said would likely never happen again.
“She wanted everybody who wanted to testify to go ahead and testify — pro, con or indifferent, it didn’t matter — and take as long as you want,” Care said. “Sometimes, we went into the night, but that’s the way she was … I don’t know of any other chair of any committee that ever did that.”
Barbara Cegavske, the former Republican Nevada secretary of state, became emotional while talking about her friend.
“I’m going to miss her greatly,” Cegavske said. “She was someone I called frequently and talked to. My husband had told me to get close to Ann O’Connell, and we’ve been friends ever since. She’s just been a rock for me.”
Cegavske said O’Connell had 14 rules for passing legislation, something Cegavske herself has shared with others and called “quintessential Ann.”
“It’s so worthy that I’ve passed it on to others if you want to be an effective legislator,” Cegavske said.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., who served with O’Connell in the Nevada Senate and tied her for the longest tenure by a woman in the chamber’s history, called her “a principled conservative dedicated to the causes she believed in.”
“We were on opposite sides of the political aisle but found common ground,” Titus said. “She was a strong advocate for the people and small businesses of District 5 and I respected her for that. You could always tell where Ann stood, unlike many politicians today. Her family’s loss is Nevada’s loss.”
## ‘Loved to laugh’
Mitch Fox, president and CEO of the Nevada Broadcasters Association, said he got to know O’Connell after he was assigned to cover the state Legislature for Vegas PBS.
Fox said he felt lost and tried to engage lawmakers to help him understand the process when he said he was “very fortunate” to meet O’Connell and Carole Vilardo, the former head of the Nevada Taxpayers Association.
“She loved to laugh and knew the budget backward and forward,” Fox said. “She just had this wonderful personality and no pretensions whatsoever.”
O’Connell’s tenure in politics ended in 2004, when she lost the Republican primary to Joe Heck. What stood out to both Care and Fox was how O’Connell handled the loss.
When the Legislature convened the following February, O’Connell was inducted into the Senate Hall of Fame. True to her character, Care said, O’Connell offered support for her former political opponent.
“One of the things she did when offered the privilege to speak from the floor was to stand up and say, ‘Joe Heck is a nice man. I want you all to treat him with respect and make him welcome here,’” Care said. “We’re talking about somebody she had just lost to. I don’t know anybody else who had that kind of character who would ever do that in American politics.”
Contact Devan Patel at dpatel@reviewjournal.com.