Many people are remembering former Sen. Harry Reid as a giant and a lion. The 82-year-old passed away, Tuesday, after a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer.Â
"He was just a great man and an incredible friend and I'm going to miss him greatly," Gov. Steve Sisolak, D-Nevada said.
Reid was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. He moved over to the senate in 1987 and remained in his seat for 30 years. He rose to the top of the democratic party, serving as minority and majority leader from 2005-2017.
"There is no doubt in my mind, he is one of the most powerful, dedicated and effective advocates that Nevada has ever had," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada said.
Reid was known as a fighter and one of his most successful fights came at the expense of Yucca Mountain. He helped keep the area in southern Nevada from becoming a nuclear waste facility.
"It was being forced on a state that didn't want something," Fred Lokken, Professor of Political Science at Truckee Meadows Community College said. "There were all kinds of politics attached to this and he was the right person for this because he was willing to be scrappy."
"I think without Harry Reid having been the minority leader and the majority leader in the United States Senate, we would now have Yucca Mountain nuclear repository here and we'd be receiving nuclear waste from all over the country," Sisolak said.
The former majority leader was instrumental in Nevada's place in the presidential nomination process. In 2008, the state became the first in the west and the third in the country to hold a presidential caucus. The state legislature recently passed a bill that will make Nevada the first in the United States to hold a presidential primary.
"Harry Reid knew that Nevada was the face of America and the voice of the west," Lokken said.
Reid was a champion for alternative energy, including solar, geothermal and wind power.
"Years ago, when Harry Reid was talking about the benefits to our state around clean energy that would create jobs and help to grow our economy and now we see that's come to fruition," Cortez Masto said.
The former senator also kept a focus on Nevada's original industry of mining, including the expansion of lithium mining. He was a conservationist who helped protect areas like Tule Springs Fossil Beds, Gold Butte and Basin and Range.
"Mining is a mainstay of Nevada," Cortez Masto said. "Harry Reid was always there, looking out for our mining companies and the workers there throughout the state but he also balanced that from working on environmental interests."
Reid was instrumental in legislation that passed during the Obama Administration, including the Affordable Care Act.
"I think he was a big part of ObamaCare/ReidCare being mandated and people getting health care coverage," Sisolak said.
"Thanks to Senator Reid, it passed out of congress and was able to get to President Obama's desk for his signature," Cortez Masto said.
After such a long and successful political career, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas was renamed the Harry Reid International Airport. Nevada has had many successful politicians but many say Reid is alone at the top.
"He may be the last great politician of American politics," Lokken said. "I think he may be the end of a generation of American politics that worked for us, the art of compromise."
"He viewed politics differently than a lot of our current-day politicians," Sisolak said. "Look, he viewed a win as a win. If you can get some of what you're asking for, you can always come back another day and try to get a little bit more."
Sisolak says Reid was able to secure funding for important projects in Nevada, including money for roads, bridges and airports.
"He just made sure that Nevada got it's fair share and then a little bit and I don't know how you're going to replace that," Sisolak said. "For a small state like Nevada, I don't know how you're going to replace that."
Sisolak and Cortez Masto have known Reid and his family for many years. Sisolak says Reid's biggest accomplishment was his 62-year marriage to his wife, Landra. The couple had five children and many grandchildren.
