Sue Wagner, the first woman elected lieutenant governor of Nevada was a political trailblazer and dedicated public servant.
She died on March 17 at age 86.
Her various political involvements spanned decades. In addition to being Nevada’s first elected woman lieutenant governor, she served in both the state Assembly and Senate, was a decade-long employee with the Desert Research Institute and served on the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Wagner was a driving force in creating the Nevada Commission on Ethics and was a vocal pro-choice leader.
Named as one of the ten “Outstanding Young Women in America”, Wagner was elected to the state Assembly in 1974 when only eight women served in the Nevada legislature.
Thirty years later, the Nevada legislature has a record 39 women serving, with the highest percentage of female lawmakers in the country.
Wagner was elected to three Assembly terms from Reno and then served in the state Senate from 1981 to 1989. She was elected lieutenant governor in 1990.
Although Wagner survived a 1990 plane crash and served her term as lieutenant governor (1991-1994), her injuries from the accident effectively ended her political career. She later served on the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1997 to 2009.
During her 1990 campaign for lieutenant governor, Wagner was flying back to Carson City from a Labor Day parade in Fallon when the plane crashed, leaving her with devastating injuries. She broke her neck and back, suffered a punctured lung, several broken ribs and was placed in a body cast.
Also seriously injured in the crash was future Republican state treasurer Bob Seale. Seale’s wife, Judy, died.
Two months later Republican Wagner won for lieutenant governor by over 15 points, while Democrat Bob Miller was elected governor in a landslide.
Wagner went through months of surgery and rehabilitation. She opted against running for re-election in 1994 and repeatedly refused later calls to run for governor or U.S. Senate.
In the opinion of the Nevada Independent’s Jon Ralston: “Wagner would have become the state’s first female governor had that plane crash not debilitated her.”
The words “capable”, “honest” and “wicked smart” are most associated with the character of her politics, as well as “courageous” in continuing to be active for decades despite suffering with chronic pain.
In a cruel irony, her husband Peter, an atmospheric physicist, along with three other Desert Research Institute scientists, was killed in a plane crash in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1980.
During her legislative career, Wagner supported women’s rights, increased funding for public and higher education, supported environmental protections and pushed for increased governmental accountability and ethics reform.
She worked to pass a game-changing ballot question in 1990 that cemented abortion rights into law.
Wagner is noted for introducing and passing more legislation than any other person in Nevada’s history.
Born in Portland, Maine, in 1940, her father served as chairman of Maine’s Republican Party. One of her early role models was the pioneering Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME).
Wagner was a proud moderate member of the Republican Party in Nevada at a time when elected officials with liberal views on social issues weren’t hounded out as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).
Wagner left the GOP to become a nonpartisan in January 2014, declaring, “I did it as a symbol that I do not like the Republican Party and what they stand for today. I’ve left the Republican Party and it’s left me, at the same time.”
She knew moderates and conservatives alike who agreed the Republican Party had “gone off the rails.”
Wagner was joined by Kathleen “Neena” Laxalt, daughter of former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt, close ally of Ronald Reagan, who also switched her party affiliation from Republican to nonpartisan.
Sue Wagner was a trailblazer in Nevada history whose legacy of immense legislative accomplishments endures.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
