In 1998 Shelley Berkley, a former Nevada state legislator
from Las Vegas, won election to the U.S. House of
Representatives from one of the nation’s fastest-growing
metropolitan areas. During her seven terms in Congress,
Berkley focused on policies important to her district—water
control, renewable energy, veterans’ issues, and regulations
affecting the gaming and entertainment industries.1 Berkley
also led opposition to the federal government’s plan to store
nuclear waste in Nevada. “Ordinarily you’re [called] the
Congresswoman from Nevada,” she said. “From the very
beginning, I was the Congresswoman from Las Vegas. I
mean, it was my hometown. I grew up here. I know it very,
very well. I often say that it’s not so much that I grew up in
Las Vegas, I grew up with Las Vegas.”2
Shelley Berkley was born Rochelle Levine in New York
City on January 20, 1951, to George and Estelle Levine.3
Her grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Europe who,
she once said, “came off the boat as Democrats.”4 Berkley’s
parents moved the family to Las Vegas when she was 11,
and after graduating from Valley High School in Las Vegas,
she became the first member of her family to attend college,
graduating from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in
1972; she earned a law degree from the University of San
Diego Law School in 1976. She married Fred Berkley and
raised two sons: Max and Sam. The couple divorced in 1995.
In March 1999, she married nephrologist Larry Lehrner, who
had two children from a previous marriage. Before entering
politics, Berkley held a variety of jobs in the Las Vegas area,
everything from keno runner to vice president for government
and legal affairs at the Sands Hotel Casino. She also chaired
the board of the Nevada Hotel and Motel Association.
Berkley cited her family’s immigrant history for why she
moved into public service. “[I wanted] to give something
back to this country for having taken my family in. It gave
us not only an opportunity to survive but an opportunity
to thrive, and we certainly have done that.”5 Berkley served
in the Nevada state assembly from 1982 to 1985. Five
years later, she was appointed to the board of regents of the
university and community college system of Nevada. She
twice won re-election to the board and served until 1998.
When Nevada Representative John Eric Ensign of Las
Vegas decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 1998, Berkley
entered the race to fill the seat and narrowly defeated
Republican Don Chairez. In 2000 she was re-elected by
an eight-point margin over Republican Jon C. Porter, 52
to 44 percent. Berkley’s district initially consisted of Las
Vegas, North Las Vegas, and the surrounding suburbs in
Clark County. By 2001, however, Las Vegas was absorbing
more than 6,000 new residents per month.6 “From year
to year, you could knock on the same door, and there’s an
entire new face opening the door,” Berkley recalled about
her campaigns. “Also, you’re not only reintroducing yourself
to those that have voted for you, but you’re constantly
introducing yourself to the new people that were coming
into your congressional district,” she said. “I would say that
was a bit of a challenge.”7 After Nevada picked up a seat
in the U.S. House in 2012, Berkley’s district dropped its
suburban areas. From 2002 to 2012, Berkley defeated her
GOP challengers by 30 to 40 points.8
In the 106th Congress (1999–2001), Berkley was
elected vice president of the freshman class of Democrats,
and she joined the New Democrat Coalition which
advocates for business-friendly policies and lower deficits.
Berkley served on three committees: Transportation and
Infrastructure; Veterans’ Affairs; and Small Business. In
the 107th Congress (2001–2003), she moved from Small
Business to International Relations (later named Foreign
Affairs). “Foreign Affairs was where my heart was,” she
stated. “That was the perfect perch for me to forward the
issues that I think are very important to the United States
and our strongest ally in the world—Israel.”9 During the
109th Congress (2005–2007), Berkley became ranking
minority Member on the Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on
Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
When Democrats took control of the House in the 110th
Congress (2007–2009), Berkley gained a seat on the powerful
Ways and Means Committee. Berkley used her spot on the
tax writing panel to protect the financial interests of the
major industries in Las Vegas. She pushed for tax reform, and,
because of the many retirees who settle in Nevada, opposed
the privatization of Social Security. While Ways and Means
is typically an exclusive committee assignment—meaning its
members give up all their other committee assignments—
Democratic leadership allowed Berkley to serve on Veterans’
Affairs in the 110th Congress and Foreign Affairs in the
111th Congress (2009–2011). After Republicans gained
control of the House in the 112th Congress (2011–2013),
Berkley sat exclusively on Ways and Means.
A longtime member of the House Democratic Whip
organization, which helps party leadership communicate with
their Members and count votes, Berkley served as a regional
whip for Members from the Southwest beginning in 2002.
In 2006 House Democratic Whip Steny Hamilton Hoyer of
Maryland promoted Berkley to senior whip, responsible for
helping to coordinate with the entire Democratic Caucus.10
Berkley began working on health care policy early in her
career. Shortly after her first election, Berkley was diagnosed
with osteoporosis. Using her own story, she pressed Congress
to expand health coverage to alleviate the costs associated
with bone mass measurements, an important procedure for
women susceptible to osteoporosis.11 In 2001 she sponsored
a bill with Pennsylvania Republican Patrick Joseph Toomey
to limit the ability of Medicare administrators to cut
off payments while also allowing patients charged with
improper billing to challenge the fees.12
Foremost, however, Berkley focused on the needs of
Las Vegas’s diverse workforce and its gaming industry.
“Since I had worked in the casinos as a youngster … I
understood what it was like to be a worker in these hotels,”
she recalled.13 She also routinely defended the gaming
industry, leading the fight against the federal online
gambling ban and a regulation, backed by the NCAA, that
sought to prohibit betting on college athletics in Nevada.
The measure, she said, “is like outlawing aspirin and saying
the drug problem is under control.”14 A member of the
Congressional Gaming Caucus, Berkley served as the
group’s chair from the 109th through the 112th Congresses.
From an environmental standpoint, Berkley opposed
a federal plan to store radioactive nuclear waste at Yucca
Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of her Las Vegas district.
She led the Nevada delegation in laying out several arguments
against the proposal: the mountain was prone to earthquakes;
it sat atop an underground flood zone; trains transporting the
waste were vulnerable to accidents or terrorist attacks; and the
project, she said, was a “financial boondoggle” which would
likely cost much more than was forecasted.15 “You need
to have a tremendous amount of water to cool the nuclear
rods,” she also pointed out. “I don’t know whether people in
Congress have noticed, but Nevada is in the middle of the
desert, and there’s no water here. We’re having enough of a
struggle with … limited water for growth.” She continued,
“The state of Nevada does not create any energy from nuclear
power. So why should we be the repository?”16 The House
nevertheless approved the bill allowing the government to
store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in the spring of 2002
that was later signed into law by President George W. Bush.
The debate around Yucca Mountain persisted throughout
Berkley’s House career. In 2009 President Barack Obama
began to draw down funding for the Yucca Mountain
repository and eliminated support for the project altogether
in his 2011 budget. On the House Floor, Berkley worked to
beat back attempts to revive the repository. “President Obama
put a stop to Yucca Mountain because it is too dangerous a
site to store radioactive nuclear waste,” she said in April 2011.
“This is a political stunt with one goal—turning my home
State of Nevada into a nuclear garbage dump.”17
Berkley sought to increase federal funding to her state
for highways and other transportation projects, as well as
school construction. She supported using certain public
lands in Nevada for renewable energy development. And
while she opposed larger gun control, she favored several
gun safety measures.
From her seat on Veterans’ Affairs, Berkley worked to
improve care for America’s servicemen and women. After a
constituent died of an overdose at a Veterans Affairs medical
center, she pushed for a review of VA mental health care
facilities.18 She also worked with Senator Harry Reid of
Nevada to secure funds for a VA medical center in North
Las Vegas that opened in 2012.19 She later called the VA
hospital her proudest accomplishment in Congress.20
When Senator John Ensign resigned in May 2011,
Berkley announced she would not run for re-election to the
House but would instead run for Nevada’s Senate seat in
2012 when it came up for election to another full six-year
term. Her Republican challenger in the 2012 Senate race
was former House Member Dean Heller, who had been
appointed to the Senate to fill the remainder of Ensign’s
term. In a close race, Heller defeated Berkley by a razor-thin
margin, 45.9 to 44.7 percent.
As her political career came to a close, Berkley reflected on
her three decades in state government and on Capitol Hill.
“From 1983, when I started my service in the Nevada state
assembly, to 2013, when I concluded my service in Congress—
that’s a 30-year stretch of people in this state that knew who I
was… . I think for a large number of youngsters, especially girls
in Las Vegas, I think I served as a role model for their future
aspirations. I think, if anything, that would be my legacy.”21
From 2014 to 2023, Berkley was the chief executive officer
and senior provost at Touro University’s Western Division,
a nonprofit medical school in Nevada and California. After resigning from her role at Touro University, she was elected Mayor of Las Vegas in 2024.22
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