Female candidates in lead against men in contested judicial races. Why?

Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge Matthew Walker was one of the most popular judges in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s 2025 Judicial Performance Evaluation.

More than 94 percent of attorneys who provided anonymous feedback in the poll recommended that he stay on the bench, the highest rating for any judge on his court.

But those results apparently didn’t resonate with voters, who gave his challenger Amanda Pellizzari a double-digit lead with 55.8 percent of the vote. Walker captured 44.2 percent. Pellizzari also outraised Walker, reporting in October that she had received contributions of $150,000 to his $108,000.

Walker’s defeat was not an anomaly. Female judicial candidates routed male ones in all nine Clark County judicial races with opponents of different genders this cycle, results show.

It’s also not a new trend — in 2020 women defeated men in 15 out of 18 contested District Court races — but the results this week indicate that 2020 was not a blip and that male candidates for judge continue to have an uphill battle when they face a female opponent.

People who are knowledgeable about judicial races debate the significance and reasons for the trend.

‘Something has shifted’

“The reality is everyone’s so scared to talk about it out loud, especially if you’re a male, because it makes you sound like a misogynist simply for speaking the truth about the reality of judicial politics in southern Nevada,” said Alex Hubert, a public defender who challenged District Judge Tara Clark Newberry. “You will not hear people go on the record talking about it. I don’t have a problem with it personally or philosophically. I can’t do anything about the fact that I’m not a woman.”

Clark Newberry was in the lead with 63 percent of the vote Thursday.

She’s not sure if being a woman gave her any advantage.

She said she doesn’t think gender should matter if a person is competent to do the job and stressed her experience as presiding judge of the court’s civil division. But she has noticed that more women are now on the bench.

“Something has shifted,” she said. “Why and how, I don’t know that I know the answer to that.”

Rebecca Gill, a UNLV political science professor who studies gender and politics as well as judicial elections, said she was not surprised by Tuesday’s outcome.

Women tend not to run for office until they are very well-qualified and voters have become accustomed to women holding certain public positions, like a judgeship, a role that may not come with high prestige or pay, she said.

“It is much easier for the general voting public to envision a woman as a trial court judge compared to a similarly situated citizen maybe in the ’70s or the ’80s,” Gill said, adding, “I don’t think this is necessarily a matter of voters kind of preferring women because they are women.”

‘They didn’t want old white men’

Tom Letizia, a longtime political consultant who represents judicial candidates, said he noticed a change around the time of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in 2018, which were marked by sexual assault and misconduct allegations against the then-nominee.

“We saw women starting to turn on men, especially Democrat women,” he said. “For some reason, they didn’t want old white men on the bench. They wanted women. They wanted more progressive women.”

People have become increasingly receptive to women’s leadership, including in nonjudicial public roles, he noted. He said he has represented impressive, deserving female candidates as well as qualified men who have lost when faced with a female opponent.

“I think the public needs to judge a candidate based on their qualifications, based on what kind of a judge they’re going to be, what temperament they’re going to have, and unfortunately, I think when the public makes decisions based on gender or ethnicity or color or any other reason other than the qualification of that candidate, I think it’s the public that actually loses,” Letizia said.

This cycle, he said the only candidate he represented who was on track to lose was Gary Thompson, who was lagging incumbent Judge Alicia Albritton for a Henderson Municipal Court seat.

Albritton was in the lead with 59.7 percent of the vote Wednesday.

Trend applies at all levels

The trend played out in higher court races as well.

District Judge Michelle Leavitt, who is highly experienced and from a prominent legal family, was ahead with 70.8 percent of the vote to public defender Daniel Gilliam’s 29.3 percent in the District Court’s Department 12 race.

District Judge Jennifer Schwartz was leading with 74.4 percent of the vote in Department 17, fending off a challenge from prosecutor Jacob Villani.

Schwartz and Villani disagreed about the role of gender in interviews before the election, with Villani suggesting that he could win if he changed his name to “Sarah Smith” and Schwartz saying that it was demeaning to suggest her gender was “the driving force” for re-election.

District Judge Jessica Peterson, a low scorer on the Review-Journal judicial performance poll, appeared on track to hold onto her Department 8 seat, with 57.8 percent of votes Thursday. Prosecutor Austin Beaumont ran against her.

In Family Court, attorney Kristine Brewer was ahead for the Department S seat, an open seat. With 55.6 percent of the vote, she was leading Hearing Master Randall Forman.

Attorney Marilyn Caston was ahead with 60.4 percent of the vote against longtime incumbent Family Court Judge Bill Henderson in Department R.

Henderson presided over a high profile, deadly custody battle, and afterward saw his retention score in the Review-Journal survey drop to 50.5 percent in 2025.

Cecia Alvarado, who said she managed Caston’s campaign, thinks women often spend years building their legal careers and establishing credibility before they run for office. They are also likely to volunteer and have leadership roles in the community, she said.

“I don’t believe that we can attribute these victories to gender alone,” she said.

A creative tactic

One male candidate, Paul Michel Gaudet, took a creative approach in his attempt to recapture the Department N Family Court seat that he lost in 2024 to now-Judge Kerri Maxey, opting to appear on the ballot under only his middle name “Michel.”

“That decision was made so that I could create a somewhat level playing field with regards to what has happened in the last … probably 10 or 15 years with regards to female versus male in judicial elections,” he said.

He denied that he was trying to make voters think he was a woman, but said he instead wanted voters to see a name that could be used for a man or woman so they would not pick based on gender.

The tactic didn’t work. Maxey was leading with 63.8 percent Thursday.

Contact Noble Brigham at [email protected].