Nevada Day Parade threatened with funding cut, potential lawsuit for excluding campaigning

Carson City Supervisor Maurice White has set the Nevada Day Parade in his sights due to their policy disallowing campaigning within the parade.

During the 2022 parade, issues rose to their breaking point after fist fights broke out along the parade route, which turned out to be political in nature.

In recent years, tensions have continued to rise along the parade route due to politics, leading to arguments, cussing, and finally, fighting in the streets.

“It became such a safety and security issue that we had to do something,” said Nevada Day President Jennell Peck. “It was noted that hostilities usually arise when people are going down the parade route with campaigns. We thought long and hard about a solution and made the rule that no parade entry would be allowed to include campaigning.”

And it worked: last year, by banning campaigning, there were no fights, and the parade “went off without a hitch” according to Peck.

Politicians were not barred entirely from Nevada Day; sitting politicians could enter the parade, and candidates could walk in the parade so long as they were walking with the Republican, Democratic, or Independent floats according to Peck.

This year, parade entries will further be limited due to time constraints, Peck said: last year there were 250 entries, and with each parade entry being allowed up to 75 walkers and six vehicles, it made for a very long parade.

“The parade starts at 10 a.m. and it ended late; many people said it was too long,” Peck said. “So we decided this year we would try to curb the number to a max of 200. If we let every single candidate enter, then that would leave no room for bands, cheerleaders, schools, nonprofits, floats, etc.”

Peck said feedback from the community was overwhelmingly positive. The public appreciated a far less political parade and Peck said the board received hundreds of messages thanking them for the new rule.

“This is not against any political party,” Peck said. “We’re only interested in safety; this is a parade for children and the community. We’re not picking one group over the other, these are broad rules and disallowing campaigning went for everyone.”

It wasn’t until recently they learned there was an issue.

White is arguing that the parade is taking away his First Amendment right to free speech by not allowing politicians to campaign.

While White is running for reelection this year, he is running unopposed.

The first time they heard about an issue was during a Carson City Board of Supervisors yearly budget meeting on April 18, 2024.

“I want to bring your attention to line item $25,000 of the Nevada Day Committee,” White said during the meeting. “I have to inform you that the Nevada Day Committee has a policy that disallows candidates from participating in the parade and campaigning on their own … I find that substantially offensive and, in my opinion, it at least borders on getting into violating the First Amendment when they allow one part of a group to participate but another part of that group is disallowed and I will not be supporting a budget that funds a group that is willing to do this sort of policy.”

Peck said White’s opposition to the budget came out of nowhere.

“That was the first time we as a board received any feedback that there was any sort of an issue,” Peck said. “He didn’t want to approve the entire budget for all of Carson City because of the donation to the parade.”

Peck said there is no conflict with the First Amendment as campaigning politicians are not a federally protected class, and Nevada Day Inc. is a private business and a nonprofit. Because of this, the board can choose to allow or disallow any entity from being involved in the parade due to safety concerns.

This year, the parade theme is the state’s motto, “All for Our Country.”

“We thought, what could be a better birthday theme for the state’s 160th birthday?” Peck said. “We are the largest celebration of statehood in the country.”

As part of the theme, the board wanted to display a show of unity, and approached both the Democratic and Republican party headquarters.

They proposed that, in order to help abate political animosity and celebrate the state, they could put politics aside for one day and come across the aisle and walk together in the parade.

One party in particular had significant issues both with the suggestion and the non-campaigning rule. Peck said she did not want to add to the political divide by divulging which party it was, but said the members of which were “very hostile and aggressive” and they said if they were forced to walk together there would be problems.

She also said that the party threatened to campaign anyway and said that the board “couldn’t stop them” if they wanted to bring campaign signs.

At one of these meetings, White attended and was “very vocal” about his disagreement with the no-campaigning policy.

Peck said he again told the board members that they were violating his First Amendment rights, and threatened a lawsuit.

“We are not political; the board is a non-partisan entity, and I’m not part of either party,” Peck said. “It was very disturbing to us because we’re just a parade; we’re all volunteers, no one gets paid to do this, we’re just trying to have a birthday celebration of our statehood. We’re not doing anything that’s trying to offend anyone.”

Nevada Day was granted its $25,000 budgetary item which goes toward helping to support the parade. Its permit is still in the process of being processed, according to the city permitting office.

According to Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell, event permits are not allowed or disallowed based on philosophies.

“(Nevada Day is) a private non profit that applies for a permit like all the other non profits that put on events in our community,” Bagwell said. “ We have no regulations in place to say yes or no based on a philosophy. They have to meet the conditions like everyone else and comply with the city rules. There’s no regulation that would prevent the parade from happening if they don’t allow campaigning.”

Peck said the Nevada Day Board is in the process of reviewing their policies due to continued issues from White and political parties.

White has not responded to multiple requests for comment about his ongoing issues with Nevada Day.