For the first time in his career, Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks is running opposed.

His challenger is Sparks City Attorney Wes Duncan, and things have gotten contentious.

Since both Hicks and Duncan are running as Republicans, and there's no Democratic candidate, this race will be decided in the June 9 Primary Election, with whoever wins the primary winning the seat.

Meet the candidates

Hicks, the incumbent, has been the Washoe DA for 11 years. He's been a prosecutor for 25 years in northern Nevada.

His dad, Larry Hicks, was a District Attorney and District Court judge before he died in 2024, after being hit and killed by a car.

Hicks is asking people to continue to believe in his mission.

"I think the community can still count on what they've seen from me over the last 25 years," DA Hicks said. "And that is tough on crime, smart on crime, holding people accountable, protecting the welfare of the community, and being responsive to the needs."

If re-elected, Hicks says it'll be more of what his office has proven. As well as putting more focus on seniors being financially exploited.

"I'd like to do a specialized prosecutor that solely does senior education, financial exploitation," he said.

This is the first time someone has run against Hicks. It's also one of, if not the most, contentious race of the primary election so far.

"Don't care for it, but it is what it is," Hicks said. "But I'm not into mudslinging. I'd rather just tell people about, 'Here's what I do, here's what I've done, here's what I stand for.'"

Wes Duncan has been the Sparks City Attorney since 2022, when Chet Adams retired.

"I want to make Washoe County a safer place and restore the integrity of the DA's office," Duncan said.

The city attorney was born in Sonora, California, before coming to Nevada as an active-duty Air Force advocate. He was a captain and deployed in Iraq, working in the court system there, prosecuting terrorist suspects.

Duncan still serves as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

He spent time in the State Assembly before having several other legal positions, such as First Assistant of the Attorney General's Office, a federal prosecutor for the Washoe County District Attorney's Office, and then Chief Assistant City Attorney for the City of Sparks, before his current role.

If elected, he wants to do a lot for the DA's Office.

"I want to modernize the District Attorney's office by setting up specialty teams," he said. "We need a gang team. We need a repeat offender crime suppression team. We need a more robust human trafficking team, a theft team, domestic violence team."

Duncan says he also wants to crack down even further on homelessness, especially in downtown Reno.

"We're going to compassionately try to connect you to services," Duncan said. "But if you are violating public health and public safety, you're going to use the criminal law, and we're going to enforce the law."

Law enforcement arguments

Duncan claims that Hicks has "lost law enforcement," while he has "unanimous support" from them.

Duncan is endorsed by several police unions across the state. Hicks is endorsed by retired Sheriffs and police chiefs, including Governor Joe Lombardo.

Hicks questions the credibility of the endorsements.

"First and foremost, what he's saying, that he's unanimously supported by law enforcement, is a broad overstatement," Hicks said, "He is supported by a handful of Union police union bosses. That's it. It was not a vote by rank and file; it was not a vote by leadership to support Wes Duncan. Again, it is a handful of these union board members."

Duncan refutes that, saying that he's supported by people actively dealing with Hick's policies.

"You respect the people that have worn the uniform in the past, but everyone that has endorsed Mr. Hicks are people that have retired long ago, who haven't suffered under his charging policies over the last three and a half years."

Hicks says the two departments can't always work hand-in-hand.

"The job of the DA is not to be a rubber stamp for police," Hicks said. "We work closely with them, absolutely have to have great relationships, and we do. But at the end of the day, we are an independent, objective agency."

That policy Duncan is referring to is the Charging and Plea-Bargaining Standards that went into effect in late 2022.

In it, "the standard to file criminal charges will be based primarily upon the existence of admissible, reliable evidence to prove that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Obviously, if you go to trial, you've got to meet the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard, but having them meet a proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard at the charging stage is absurd," Duncan said. "And what's happening is people are being released back into the community who are very dangerous."

The other part of the policy that Duncan brought up is that a defendant must plead to their most serious charge.

"What Mr. Hicks has done is he's essentially eliminated plea bargaining," Duncan said. "He says if we charge the case, you have to plead to the top charge. That's why we're seeing a huge influx of trials, because defendants are saying, well, why would I just plead to the top charge? They're going to roll their dice."

Hicks did say they've seen an increase in trials since the policy was put in place, but says it wasn't all attributed to it.

He says that up until last year, they were still dealing with a backlog from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hicks says the office has to be careful when deciding to charge a case.

"If we take a case in and there's not enough evidence or there's some impediment to proving it, and we lose, it's over," Hicks said. "The victim gets no justice, the community gets no justice."

Family business

Duncan criticized the fact that Hick's wife, Nicole Hicks, works in his office and is calling it nepotism. She is a Chief Deputy District Attorney.  

"The reality that my wife is being dragged into a political campaign is about as low as the low can get," Hicks said.

It is against the law for a public official to employ a family member.

Hick's says it does not apply because he and his wife met in the office and then got married before he became DA.

"We consulted legal," Hicks said. "We looked at all the ethics opinions, the Attorney General's opinions, case law throughout the country, and what the conclusion was, we also worked with county HR, is that it is not nepotism because we were both hired beforehand."

Duncan says that when Hick's dad and his uncle worked for the office in the 1970's, his uncle made a decision.

"His uncle resigned that seat when his dad took office," Duncan said. "It's the exact same. It's the exact same scenario. The reason why he's not doing it and he's engaging in what I think are ethical gymnastics is because he benefits financially from it."

Change in prior policy stance

In a past story with the Nevada Independent, Wes Duncan said that you should resign your current role if it's in an elected office position, if you are running for a new role that would run concurrently.

Duncan was appointed to Sparks City Attorney in 2022, before being elected in 2024 after no one opposed him. His term would technically end in January 2029.

We asked Duncan about this in our sit-down interview with him on Tuesday.

"Other states have had that, and, you know, that proposal was a statewide proposal," Duncan responded. "And it wasn't able to be successful, to even put that forward. I think the voters have to decide, you know, what they want to do with folks that are running again, you know. I took the opportunity to be the city attorney and now to run as the Washoe County District Attorney, because there's a real need."

Duncan also claims that crime rates in the community are rising.

According to Nevada Crime Statistics, violent crime slightly went down by about one percent from 2024 to 2025.

To view more crime statistics in Washoe County since 2021, click here.

Early voting starts May 23 and goes until June 5.

June 9 is the primary election.

Only those who are registered Republicans will be able to vote in this race.

Incumbent Washoe County DA Chris Hicks is running opposed for the first time, against Sparks City Attorney Wes Duncan.

Sparks City Attorney Wes Duncan is challenging incumbent Washoe County DA Chris Hicks in the primary election, the first time Hicks has faced a challenger for the role.