Judith Whitmer

Judith Whitmer is a Nevada activist. She is chair of the Clark County Democratic Party.

Background

Judith Whitmer moved from Baltimore, MD to the Las Vegas Valley in November 2015. She grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida and graduated from Seminole College and the University of Central Florida. Professionally, Judith’s career has focused on the engineering field including project controls, operations, procurement, contract administration and business development. Recently, she was on the management team for award winning multi billion dollar video tolling super highway connector and light rail transit projects in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region.

Judith is also a founding member and Chair of the Clark County Left Caucus and a member of the Nevada State Democratic Party Central Committee (NSDP), the Steering Committee for the Clark County Educators Association (CCEA) ‘Fund Our Schools Now Rally’ and a Gold member of the Red Rock Democratic Club. In addition, she was recently appointed Chair of the NSDP Communications Committee.

Previous political experience includes field organizing, canvassing and phone banking as a volunteer for Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 Presidential campaigns and Martin O’Malley’s Maryland Gubernatorial campaigns. Locally, Judith has worked on Nevada Assembly and Senate campaigns, volunteered for Nevada Congressional campaigns and organized fundraising events for a city council race. Through her fundraising efforts, the CCDP raised $100,000 during the last term. Judith looks forward to building on that success during the new 2019-2020 term.

Victory

Clark County Democratic Party Chair Judith Whitmer defeated Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom on March 6 2021 to assume control of the Nevada State Democratic Party, ushering a dramatic shakeup of the state party’s power structure by its most liberal wing.

Three other progressives running alongside Whitmer captured four of the other officer positions during the election, which was held during a virtual meeting of the state party’s central committee. Whitmer received 248 votes to Segerblom’s 216 for the chair position.

Jacob Allen (first vice-chair), Dr. Zaffar Iqbal (second vice-chair) and Ahmad Ade (secretary) were also elected on Whitmer’s “progressive” slate. Lance Arberry (treasurer) was the lone winner for Segerblom’s “progressive unity” slate, defeating Howard Beckerman by just two votes.

Several central committee members complained of technical or administrator errors that kept them from voting in one or more races, but outgoing party leaders, including Chair William McCurdy II, ruled they would not have affected the outcome of any race.

Segerblom immediately congratulated Whitmer on Twitter, saying he hoped to work with her going forward.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to limit in-person campaigning, Whitmer and Segerblom competed for the endorsement of Nevada’s various Democratic clubs in a series of Zoom meetings leading up to the election.

While the two remained cordial to one another on social media, some of their supporters did not.

Whitmer’s followers accused Segerblom, one of the state’s lone lifelong progressive elected officials, of being too close to elected officials and the outgoing state party leadership.

Others accused Whitmer of seeking to use the chair position to force an ideological shift among Nevada’s more moderate elected Democrats and questioned her commitment to diversity within the party.

While Segerblom enjoyed support from prominent local, state and federal elected officials, Whitmer has spent years organizing and encouraging young progressives to serve on the very state central committee that elected her.

According to both candidates, the race drew the direct intervention of some of the state’s top elected officials, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who will lead the Democratic ticket along with Gov. Steve Sisolak in 2022. Nevada’s senior senator reportedly approached Segerblom, who had not been considering a bid for the seat he once held in the early ’90s, about joining the race and questioned Whitmer on her candidacy.

Nevada Dems/Progressive Slate

Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America March 6 2021.

Today, the Nevada State Democratic Party holds their officer elections. We've endorsed the Progressive Slate because we believe they're committed to change that reflects working people in Nevada.

• Judith Whitmer is a true comrade. She is the former Las Vegas DSA Electoral co-chair, co-founder of Left Caucus, and a incredible organizer who has helped keep the Bernie 2020 coalition together after the caucus. She has longterm vision and understands the power of collective action.

• Jacob Allen is a Latino comrade from Washoe who served as Bernie's 2020 Northern NV political associate and played a crucial role in securing county-wide victories for the Senator in both 2016 and 2020.

• Dr. Zaffar Iqbal is a physician who operates a small rural clinic. He served as a Bernie 2020 NV Co-Chair, founded both Muslims for Bernie and the Muslim Democratic Club, and has been instrumental in helping to diversify our county and statewide Party.

• Ahmad Ade is a proud Black muslim and a lifelong political and community organizer, going all the way back to his days organizing with Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers. Today he's focused on fighting for our unhoused community in the Historic West Side.

• Howard Beckerman is a Carson City based comrade who has been fighting alongside in the trenches to make our state Party more transparent and responsive to rank and file members. He's committed to investing our resources in every county across the state.

We urge all members of the SCC to vote for the Progressive Slate today. We will face difficult battles in 2022 and NV Dems needs leadership that understands how to mobilize and engage all Nevadans, all year round, not just at election time.

And no matter who wins today, the next chair of NV Dems will be a DSA member and we will continue to push the party to truly represent working people.

Taking over the party

In July 2020 nine of 14 contested seats went to progressives when the Nevada State Democratic Party elected members to at-large positions on the state party’s executive board.

The result gives progressives a controlling majority on the board, according to the Clark County Left Caucus, which backed the nine successful candidates.

“Left Caucus is committed to bringing progressive change to Nevada, through utilizing innovative platforms and approaches to bring in new voices to the Democratic Party.” said Judith Whitmer, chair of Left Caucus and second vice-chair of the Clark County Democratic Party.

“Progressives are on our way to bringing real change to Nevada. Our model and approach should serve as a key framework for progressives throughout the U.S. looking to make clear changes and policy reforms within the Democratic Party.”

The Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Board manages the day-to-day operations and expenditures of the party and sits with the state Central Committee to make the rules and bylaws that govern the party. The Executive Board also approves committee assignments made by the chair of the state party.

With a clear majority of seats now held by progressives, the Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Board will seek to ensure transparency, ethical operations, and fairness within the State Democratic Party, the Left Caucus said in a statement.

The new Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Board members are Gordon Brown, Jeffrey Carlson, ShaeAnn Clements-Ojeda, Gabrielle D'Ayr, Marco Henry, Christopher Roberts and Michael Weiss for Clark County; Massimo Balestra for Washoe County; and Leslie Sexton for rural counties.

DSA delegate

In 2020 Judith Whitmer and Richard Segerblom were Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America candidates for Bernie Sanders delegates.

DSA member

Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America June 15 2019·

With Judith Whitmer at Medicare For All: A Rally for Health Justice.