LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Carrie Cox, the Ward III Henderson City Councilwoman whose first term was marked by occasional public disagreements with the mayor and council, announced her re-election Thursday.
Cox gave her first television interview in a wide-ranging conversation with the 8 News Now Investigators.
Asked what she learned in her first term, Cox answered: “Well, I really learned about how to truly serve constituents and what that looks like at the city so I could best help people that needed help. And that’s really what it’s about. Right – it’s about being able to take a problem and being able to resolve it for our residents.”
Cox won a contentious campaign against a candidate endorsed by Mayor Michelle Romero in 2022 as an at-large candidate, but won the majority of votes in the ward she currently serves.
Cox filed a lawsuit against her previous opponent, Trish Nash, and the Las Vegas Realtor Association, prior to election day for what Cox called “damage to my reputation.”
She claimed that their Political Action Committee released slanderous flyers about her. Nash denied Cox’s allegations.
In April, Romero, who has sparred with Cox during council meetings and ultimately threatened legal action against her, also announced her re-election for 2026. Romero’s and Cox’s re-elections are the only two high-level elections in Henderson’s 2026 race. Cox denied any wrongdoing with regard to Romero’s allegations.
The city faces a $10 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, according to comments Romero made at a public meeting this week. And the application deadline for a new chief of the Henderson Police Department looms after the city manager fired the previous police chief, Hollie Chadwick, in March.
The department now seeks to hire its 10th police chief in the past 25 years. Cox lost the support of the city’s two police unions in February.
She had the endorsement of those unions during her 2022 run for office. She discussed this during Friday’s interview with the 8 News Now Investigators.
8NN: When you ran your first election and won, you had some endorsements that you no longer have, for whatever reason. Do you think you can go win round two with those endorsements not there?
Cox: Well, for one, I don’t know that I won’t have those endorsements, and I think what’s important is that I proved myself. And I haven’t done anything wrong to lose any endorsements. And I’ll continue to fight for police. I’ll continue to fight for fire. And I will go win because it’s not, I think, as much about endorsements as the quality of the person sitting in that seat. And so I’ve had the benefit of being there and doing the things that I need to do to earn that seat, and I believe I’ll win.”
Cox and Romero both run unopposed at this early stage of their respective 2026 races.
