Horsford’s chief of staff has long history in Nevada politics

In a world of personality and pull quotes, Asha Jones slices through B.S. like it’s butter.

Politically, she works behind the scenes. But she’s no shadow figure. She carries the voices of thousands of voters, snipped from conversations on their doorsteps, in church and during campaign events. And she’s no stranger to Nevada politicians.

Democrats Shelley Berkley, Harry Reid and Ruben Kihuen are all on her resume. In 2016, she toiled on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Now, at 43, she serves as Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford’s chief of staff, the 21st black woman of 535 individuals named to such a position this session.

“If you look at her, although you wouldn’t negatively assess her, you absolutely would not know the power behind the individual who you are looking at,” her pastor, Dr. Robert Fowler of Victory Missionary Baptist Church, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “An amazing intellect. A great collaborator. A wonderful conflict-resolution person, and a visionary in her own right.”

Raised in Las Vegas, she has been a leader since she was a teen, when she petitioned Rancho High School to incorporate more black history into its curriculum in the wake of the Rodney King riots.

The school didn’t do it. So after dismissal, Jones started taking a bus to night classes at KCEP, a radio station in the Historic Westside, seeking the knowledge out on her own and inviting other students to do the same.

Even younger, at age 12, she got her first campaign experience: knocking on doors with her mom, a local teacher at the time, for a union-supported candidate.

“She’s always had wonderful character,” said Omiyale Jube, who taught the radio station classes. “She’s been driven. A pleasant young lady. I had no doubts that she would have success — no doubts at all that she would be one to shine.”

‘This is how we make change’

The first time Jones set foot in Washington, D.C., she was in high school. It was part of a trip with Close Up, an organization that sends students on educational trips to the capital.

She vividly remembers exploring the National Mall and walking up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in awe.

“All the stuff that I read about was real,” Jones said. “And I was like, OK, so, wait a minute. This is how we make change.”

In college, Jones interned with then-Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, and the experience turned into a job for about eight years, landing her back in D.C. She was a single mother at the time, raising her son, who is now 24.

“I don’t know of a woman more devoted to her son than Asha was,” Berkley told the Review-Journal. “So here she was raising her son and working full time. And when you work in a congressional office, that means you’re on call 24 hours a day. But she was able to handle both aspects of her life, and I suspect other aspects of her life, with enthusiasm, grace, dignity, and she was completely selfless throughout her tenure with me.”

Berkley still follows Jones’ career. She was ecstatic to hear that Horsford, a fellow Democrat, had named her chief of staff.

“She has a good feel for people,” Berkley said. “She’s compassionate and caring. That coupled with being knowledgeable about the issues and how to get things accomplished is a winning combination.”

Heightened responsibility

Jones has been working in her new position for about seven weeks. It’s based in North Las Vegas, which falls under Horsford’s congressional district, but once or twice a month, she travels to D.C.

Horsford is the only Nevada delegate who has a chief of staff based in Nevada, which he sees as an asset — someone to act as his “eyes and ears” in the district while he is working in D.C. He knew Jones would be the perfect fit.

“Asha has a big heart,” Horsford said this week. “She is a very caring person who is always looking out for the interest of others. She really has a reputation of getting things done. And she’s also very trustworthy and loyal, which is really important in the business of politics.”

When Horsford first called Jones to offer her the position, she was shocked. A week later, when she accepted, Jones didn’t realize her appointment made her the 21st black woman named as a chief of staff this session until she saw a press release about it.

“I think it just — it heightens my level of responsibility,” she said. “If I mess up, it affects how black women are perceived as a whole. And I realize that everybody doesn’t (think like that), but that’s how I think.”

Jones said she is “very intentional” in her blackness. She supports black business owners, and for years, she has mentored black youth.

It frustrates her to see how much things haven’t changed.

“I have a son,” she said. “I have a black, male child. And so, just having that makes me see the world differently than most people.”

She grew up with, and later lost, her two brothers: The youngest was murdered in 2004; the second, a veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, overdosed in 2016. Grief could have consumed her. But she focused on work.

“That we’re still celebrating the first this and the first that,” she said of her designation as No. 21, “some people are disheartened by that. But I’m still excited by it, because it means we’re making progress.”

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.