Representative Ruben J. Kihuen

Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal was born on April 25, 1980, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. His family immigrated to the United States in 1988, settling first in California. Kihuen’s grandfather had emigrated from Lebanon to Mexico, where he married a native Mexican, giving Kihuen a mixed Lebanese and Mexican heritage. His father, Armando Kihuen, worked as a laborer in Orange County, California, before moving the family to Las Vegas, Nevada, in the 1990s and becoming a middle school science teacher. Growing up in North Las Vegas, Kihuen attended Rancho High School, where he distinguished himself as an athlete and was named Nevada “soccer player of the year” for the 1997–1998 school year.

Kihuen pursued higher education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education. During his high school and college years, he became active in Democratic politics, volunteering for the campaigns of U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, Virginia Governor Mark Warner, and Houston Mayor Lee Brown. Alongside his early political involvement, he developed an interest in public administration and, as of 2011, was enrolled in a Master of Public Administration program at the University of Oklahoma. These experiences helped establish his reputation as a young Democratic organizer and positioned him for a career in public service in Nevada.

Kihuen formally entered professional politics in 2002 as a deputy field director for the Nevada Democratic Party. He later served as a regional representative for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, strengthening his ties to national Democratic leadership. Outside of partisan roles, he worked as a student recruiter and academic advisor for the College of Southern Nevada, engaging with first-generation and minority students. He also served on the Clark County Community Development Advisory Committee and the North Las Vegas Citizen’s Advisory Committee, gaining experience in local governance and community development issues.

In 2006, Kihuen was elected to the Nevada Assembly, marking his first successful bid for public office. He won the Democratic primary against incumbent Bob McCleary in a three-way race, supported in part by organized labor, including the AFL-CIO. The primary was overshadowed by controversy when it emerged that McCleary had paid $500 to a third candidate, David Adams, who briefly dropped out of the race; Adams characterized the payment as a bribe, while McCleary claimed it was compensation for campaign work. Kihuen ultimately prevailed and ran unopposed in the general election. He served two terms in the Assembly before successfully running in 2010 for the Nevada State Senate after the incumbent senator was term-limited. In the State Senate, he quickly rose in influence: during the 76th legislative session in 2011 he chaired the Senate Select Committee on Economic Growth and Employment, and in the 77th legislative session in 2013 he chaired the Senate Standing Committee on Revenue and Economic Development and served as Majority Whip for the Senate Democratic caucus.

Kihuen’s growing profile led him to consider federal office. In September 2011, he announced his intention to run for Nevada’s 1st congressional district, but he withdrew in early 2012, about a month before filing opened, thereby clearing the way for former Representative Dina Titus to seek the seat without a contested Democratic primary. On March 28, 2015, Kihuen declared his candidacy for Nevada’s 4th congressional district, aiming to unseat first-term Republican Representative Cresent Hardy. During the 2016 campaign he took leave from his position at the Las Vegas-based public relations firm the Ramirez Group. He faced criticism for residing in Nevada’s 1st congressional district rather than the 4th, though the U.S. Constitution requires only that House members live in the state they represent, not necessarily within the district. Kihuen won a crowded Democratic primary on June 14, 2016, defeating seven other candidates, and was selected to speak at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the only House Democratic recruit of that cycle to receive such an invitation. In the general election, he defeated Hardy by a vote of 128,680 (48.5 percent) to 118,220 (44.5 percent). Although Hardy carried six of the district’s seven counties, Kihuen won decisively in the district’s share of Clark County, carrying it by more than 24,000 votes.

Ruben J. Kihuen served as a Representative from Nevada in the United States Congress from January 3, 2017, to January 3, 2019, representing Nevada’s 4th congressional district for one term. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Nevada’s first Latino member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and he described himself as the first “Dreamer” elected to Congress, reflecting his experience as an immigrant brought to the United States as a child. During his term in the House of Representatives, Kihuen served on the Committee on Financial Services, including the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance and the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance. He was active in several caucuses, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the New Democrat Coalition, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American political life, and he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents in Nevada’s 4th district.

Kihuen’s congressional tenure was overshadowed by allegations of sexual misconduct that emerged in late 2017. On December 1, 2017, BuzzFeed reported that a 25-year-old woman who had served as finance director for his 2016 congressional campaign accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted touching. She alleged that beginning in February 2016 he repeatedly asked her to go on dates or have sexual intercourse with him and, on two occasions, forcibly touched her thighs without her consent. After leaving the campaign in April 2016, she told a mid-level staffer at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that Kihuen had made her feel “uncomfortable,” though she did not initially provide detailed allegations. The staffer relayed her concerns to another DCCC staffer, who contacted Kihuen’s campaign manager, Dave Chase; Chase confronted Kihuen, who denied wrongdoing. The former finance director had contemporaneously documented her experiences in text messages to a friend on March 10, 2016, and shared details with several other individuals at the time. Asked about the accusations, Kihuen stated, “I sincerely apologize for anything that I may have said or done that made her feel uncomfortable.”

Following publication of the allegations, DCCC Chair Ben Ray Luján called for Kihuen’s resignation on December 1, 2017, stating that anyone guilty of sexual harassment or assault should not hold elected office, and he ordered Kihuen’s immediate removal from the DCCC’s Frontline program for vulnerable incumbents. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined the call for his resignation shortly after midnight on December 2, describing the woman’s documented account as convincing and commending her courage. Nevada Democrats also condemned Kihuen; Representative Jacky Rosen explicitly urged him to resign, while State Senate Democratic Leader Aaron Ford said he was “deeply disappointed and disturbed” by the allegations. Representative Dina Titus issued particularly sharp criticism, asserting that Kihuen’s personal behavior had jeopardized his political career and that “zero tolerance means zero tolerance.” Chase, Kihuen’s former campaign manager, told reporters he believed the former finance director and regretted not having known the specific allegations earlier. Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator and Kihuen’s 2016 primary opponent, said the accusations were unsurprising given his reputation in the legislature, where he was known to be “very flirtatious and hands on,” and she stated that she had personally witnessed him being “grabby with young, attractive women.”

In a December 5, 2017, interview with ABC News, Kihuen refused to resign and claimed that Pelosi, Luján, and the DCCC had known of the allegations during his 2016 campaign and had investigated them before continuing to invest in his race. Both Pelosi’s office and the DCCC denied this, stating they first learned of the detailed allegations from the BuzzFeed report. Additional accusations soon followed. On December 13, 2017, a second woman told The Nevada Independent that Kihuen had touched her thighs or buttocks on three occasions and had sent her hundreds of sexually suggestive text messages. A third woman also came forward alleging improper touching. On December 16, 2017, Kihuen announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018, though he later briefly suggested he might reconsider before ultimately confirming that he would not run again. In November 2018, the House Ethics Committee formally sanctioned Kihuen, concluding that he had “made persistent and unwanted advances towards women.” The committee reported that each complainant’s allegations were supported by documentary evidence and that some incidents were corroborated by third-party witnesses.

After leaving Congress at the end of his term in January 2019, Kihuen sought to continue his political career at the local level. In 2019 he ran for a seat on the Las Vegas City Council but was defeated in the primary, finishing third. He subsequently turned to work in the nonprofit sector, becoming external relations director for Las Vegas’ Immigrant Home Foundation (Fundación Casa de los Migrantes). In that role he has focused on outreach to immigrant communities, including publicizing COVID-19 vaccination drives among Spanish-speaking immigrants and their families. Kihuen’s career has placed him among notable Arab and Middle Eastern Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans who have served in the United States Congress, reflecting both his Lebanese and Mexican ancestry and his status as Nevada’s first Latino member of the U.S. House of Representatives.