Who had the most — and least — bills pass in the 2025 Legislature?

Lawmakers spent more than 120 days trying to get their bills through the finish line this session, and some had more success than others.

Democrats controlled both the Assembly and Senate, making it easier for Democratic bills to make their way through the legislative gears. But Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo wielded his veto power — setting a state record for the highest number of bills vetoed by a governor and putting a stop to many Democratic-led bills.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had to work with Democratic leaders to pass their bills out of the Legislature. The legislation had to be bipartisan enough to make it past the Republican governor and become reality.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal determined who had the most success in getting their legislation passed by comparing each lawmaker’s percentages of bills that became law. A full breakdown of that data, provided by the Legislative Counsel Bureau, can be found here.

Who had most, least success?

Democratic Assemblymember Tracy Brown-May, D-Las Vegas, had the best legislative record in the 2025 session with a 90 percent success rate. She was the primary sponsor of 10 bills — nine of which were passed out of the Legislature and signed into law.

“None of us is alone in successfully passing any single measure,” Brown-May said in a text message statement to the Review-Journal. “It takes a majority of votes in each house.”

The next most successful was Sen. Julie Pazina, D-Henderson. She sponsored 14 bills; 79 percent of them became law. Coming in third was Assemblymember Shea Backus, D-Las Vegas, who sponsored 10 bills; 70 percent became law.

Republicans Sen. John Steinbeck and Assemblymember Rebecca Edgeworth, both representing Las Vegas, were the most effective in their party as part of a four-way tie with Democratic Assemblymembers Elaine Marzola of Henderson and Tanya Flanagan of North Las Vegas, all with a 67 percent success rate.

On the other side of the coin, some lawmakers had a difficult time pushing their bills through the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Republican Sens. Carrie Buck, R-Henderson, and John Ellison, R-Eureka, were the only lawmakers with a zero percent success rate, introducing a combined 30 bills, only to see all of them die in the Legislature.

Rounding out the bottom five were Assemblymember Toby Yurek, R-Henderson, who ended up in a three-way tie with Assemblymembers Selena La Rue Hatch, D-Reno, and Assemblymember Jill Dickman, R-Sparks, each with only a 10 percent success rate.

Ten lawmakers — split evenly between the two parties — only had one of their bills become law.

Multiple lawmakers said the volume of bills passed is not the best way to measure effectiveness of a legislator, saying there are limits on the number of bills that can be introduced based on seniority and which chamber they are in.

The impact and topic of bills introduced also influenced the likelihood of legislation making it through the finish line. Bills with more partisan proposals — such as Buck’s trans sports ban bill or Assemblymember Brittney Miller’s anti-book ban bill — were unlikely to pass through the divided government.

Why did their bills die?

Buck chalked up her inability to get her bills passed to her difficult relationship with Democratic leadership.

“I know I’m not a favorite with the other side,” Buck said.

Buck said she had many “common sense” bills that she knew Democrats would not support and didn’t even get a hearing, including her bill to ban trans athletes from participating in girls’ sports and creating a coed league.

Even though many of her bills did not receive hearings, Buck said she had success in merging her ideas with Democratic bills.

For example, she proposed legislation to educate first responders on the signs of sex trafficking. Buck said it was folded into Senate Bill 424, a committee-sponsored bill. She also pushed for charter school teacher raises, a provision that was later amended into Speaker Steve Yeager’s bill.

“A lot of my policies are very common sense, very bipartisan, so I just try and work them into other Democrat bills so that they can be a part of that,” Buck said. “Nevadans deserve lawmakers who won’t give up when things get tough, don’t play games and don’t seek headlines, don’t need their name on things, but deliver results. And so I do that behind the scenes.”

Ellison said some of his bills never got a hearing, though he worked hard on every one of them. In some cases, Democratic lawmakers proposed an amendment to the bill that he said would have the opposite effect of the original intent of the bill.

“If I wouldn’t jump on board and swallow the poison, they would kill my bill,” Ellison said. “It’s basically what they did, and I couldn’t do that. I’m there to do the job for the people, not for me.”

Other lawmakers say they were not as concerned with who earned final credit for sponsoring a bill. Assemblymember Duy Nguyen, who had a 12.5 percent success rate, said he was focused on productive conversations about policy proposals and his four committee assignments. Two of the Las Vegas Democrat’s eight bills passed the Legislature; one received a veto.

Nguyen pointed to Assembly Bill 290, which proposed reforms to prior authorization requests in health care, as one he intends to bring back next session if re-elected.

“Even though it didn’t make it through the process, I’m glad I started the conversation,” he said. “It’s not about how many bills you got passed, or how many bills got signed into law. … It seems like a popularity contest almost. Sometimes complex issues will not get done in one session.”

Approved legislation also can be part of evolving issues, he said. AB289, allowing the Board of Regents to create a financial literacy course for higher education, evolved from similar legislation for Nevada high schools that was passed last session. It passed with near-unanimous support in both chambers.

Nguyen said he was surprised to see his other bill struck down by a Lombardo veto. AB112 would have allowed union members in collective bargaining agreements to use their accrued sick time to care for a family member.

In his veto message, the governor said he saw the legislation as mandating additional benefits outside of the collective bargaining process. Nguyen said he thought the veto was not based on the bill’s reality.

“I’m truly disappointed that something as common sense as this is being given such an incorrect positioning,” he said. “Our flight attendants are Nevadans, too. They go to work and provide for their family, but being penalized to use that sick leave — it makes no sense.”

What successful legislators did

Legislators who saw success putting forward their bills attributed their wins to “common sense” legislation and cooperation.

Edgeworth said as the only practicing physician in the Assembly, she focused her bills on health care reform.

“I think both sides of the aisle agree, we have a lot of opportunity for improvement in medical care in Nevada, and I think that was kind of a winning topic,” she said.

The freshman assemblymember said her bill revising who makes up mobile crisis response teams for mental health calls was an example of bipartisanship. AB380 passed unanimously.

“The fact that Republicans were able to pass laws means that we were willing to work in a bipartisan way, but also I think it speaks to how the Democrats were interested in working together for good legislation,” she said.

Pazina found topics to prioritize through conversations with constituents. Top of mind for many, she said, was health care.

“I had multiple people in my community crying on their doorstep about not being able to get an appointment — specialists were a lot harder, but even just for general family practitioners,” Pazina said.

The lawmaker in her second session said she was most proud of Senate Bill 262, which expands the state’s graduate medical residency programs. She said she began working on the policy proposal with stakeholders like the state’s universities and health care organizations shortly after her first election.

“For me, it’s just common sense that we listen to our neighbors and hear what it is they want,” she said.

Brown-May said there are key skills she leans on to help her in her legislative role, including compassion, approachability and long-term thinking.

“I believe my job is to listen,” she said in her text message. “Having an open door and being willing to consider all perspectives is essential to crafting policy solutions.”

Her bills focused on supporting vulnerable members of the community, including seniors, children and people with disabilities. She is most proud of the work she did as chair of the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services, she said.

Steinbeck, a freshman in the minority party, said his eight successful bills (out of 12) were focused on public safety issues or topics constituents asked him to champion. His experience as the former Clark County fire chief may have helped give credence to those bills, he said.

“It’s not always just what I want to get through, it’s ‘what can I get through?’ ” he said. “If there’s something in the law that’s going to die in committee or not make it through the Legislature, then you’ve got to move it. You’ve got to change, so that was my strategy.”

One example was SB309, strengthening DUI penalties. Steinbeck said he wanted to add marijuana intoxication to a specific limit in the statute, similar to a blood alcohol concentration level for alcohol intoxication. But opponents said there wasn’t enough research to determine the appropriate level, and so it was not incorporated into the law. (Driving while under the influence of marijuana remains illegal.)

“It’s get what you can,” he said.

A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Julie Pazina’s years of experience.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com and McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah and @mckenna_ross_ on X.