Sisolak Announces May 20th End of Emergency Powers

Late last Friday afternoon in a press release and without much fanfare, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced his intention to end his emergency powers on May 20th. The state of emergency has been in place since March 2020 and has, according to the release, “gave flexibility for Nevada to respond to challenges as they arose.”

Between now and May 20, Gov. Sisolak said that Nevada will “continue to work with partners who are using the flexibility allowed by the Declaration of Emergency to ensure there is no gap in services when the emergency ends.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic tried and tested our State on every level. By working together across all levels of government and in every corner of the State, we kept prevented our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed and continued to provide services to Nevadans in need,” said Gov. Sisolak. “I am so grateful to all the Nevadans who worked through these trying times in service of the Silver State.”

“A number of measures – including portions of Emergency Directive 11, which waived certain licensing requirements to allow the State to bring additional health care workers into hospitals, and allow certain doctors, nurses, EMTs, and medical students to go to work under proper supervision to care for COVID-19 patients – are still in place, and the State is working with the appropriate partners as the emergency order ends,” the release states.

The Globe reached out to many Nevada GOP candidates for comment. They didn’t hold back.

Here’s what his gubernatorial challengers had to say:

Joey Gilbert:

“As the candidate with the most grassroots and statewide support, including from independents, moderates and the medical/health & freedom community, mama bears, homeschoolers LEO’s, Fire and all frontline workers, I can tell you that only a total degenerate and political hack would have kept this fake emergency in place for
two years and three months.

He’s absolutely disgraceful and he ruined this State. He can play all the games he wants to right now, saying he’s for small businesses, education and healthcare, but you don’t LOCK children out of their schools, creating a mental health and education crisis with our kids and teens, resulting in the highest suicides per capita in the nation and the worst, most dangerous schools in the nation. You don’t force “certain”
businesses to shut down, resulting in 35% of small businesses in Nevada to never reopen again. And you definitely don’t tie doctors hands and then practice medicine without a license via your board of pharmacy and your executive powers, by denying thousands of Nevadans access to early treatment medication‘s, which would have reduced hospitalizations and death by 85% plus, which by the way is illegal and against the law. On balance, you also don’t allow your healthcare workers, who were heroes a year ago to be fired because they didn’t get some unproven, ineffective and dangerous experimental treatment modality, also known as a vaccine, which only created even more problems to our already expensive and limited healthcare capabilities in the Silver State, especially our rural counties.

Even more troubling is that this was all done via his self serving, incompetent, unscientific and unconstitutional mandates, which are not laws.

Regardless of his messaging and posturing on what he’s going to do for the State, actions speak louder than words and his actions are what has put Nevada at the top of every wrong column, including unemployment, inflation, education, crime, mental health, homelessness, water needs and election integrity, along with what he did to peoples medical freedom and medical privacy, not to mention decimating parental rights.

Nothing is going to stop WE THE PEOPLE from throwing this totally corrupt loser out of the Governor’s office in November, and as stated above, this will happen because this is no longer about Republicans or Democrats, this is about America and our freedoms and constitutional rights to live our lives free from Sisolak’s insane government overreach. This is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and trust me, Nevadans have PICKED A SIDE, they’re all just not as vocal as I am, so you’ll find out in June & November, respectively.”

Former US Senator Dean Heller:

“Steve Sisolak’s handling of the pandemic was misguided, irrational, and reckless. He plunged our state into an economic crisis while completely turning his back on the hardworking men and women of Nevada’s small business community. Our schoolchildren have suffered probably more than anyone. Sisolak believes that freedoms are his to grant and confiscate as he sees fit. We should not relax with the end of the emergency measures he put in place, because he’ll re-implement them if it suits his personal, political agenda. When I’m Governor, there will be no mandates, no shutdowns and no lockdowns, period.

Businessman Guy Nohra:

“For two years, Governor Sisolak has utilized a “state of emergency” to shut down our churches, destroy our businesses, and cause untold damage to our children by closing schools and mandating masks. At every turn, the Governor abused his power using the politics of the pandemic to make decisions that hurt Nevadans, rather than following the data. When I’m Governor, I’ll adhere to the Constitution and will fight every day to protect your families’ freedoms and liberties. We must never allow this to happen again.”

Dr. Fred Simon:

“Governor Steve Sisolak violated the most vital two aspects of our constitutional rights. He limited our personal freedoms as a tyrant with no reasonable and prudent basis. He totally failed the citizens and the healthcare system by limiting re-purposed drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine that would have easily decreased the burden on the healthcare system and save citizen lives. The threat from government to physicians not to act independently in such a crisis is egregious miss use of governmental power. His decisions on schools, mask vaccine mandates and abuse of state county and municipal employees is reprehensible, with no logical nor scientific basis. Every step of the crisis was incompetently handled by the state government. The executive leader Steve Sisolak was incompetent in knowledge, and understanding. And now close to election time is exhibiting a political calculation first and shows total lack of character. We are all victims of shameful leader ship. No government has the right to take away personal rights freedom and liberty.”

GOP candidate for Congressional District 3, April Becker, told The Globe:

“Unfortunately, Steve Sisolak’s mismanagement of our state doesn’t end with the termination of this emergency order; however, it will end this November.”

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a candidate for US Senate, took to Twitter:

This state of emergency should've been lifted a long time ago.

All the Democrats' actions on COVID have been guided by political science, not the facts on the ground.

Never forget that my opponent @CortezMasto sided with Sisolak over working families when he shut down Nevada. https://t.co/1JVIQwnrG4

— Adam Paul Laxalt (@AdamLaxalt) May 6, 2022

During the emergency order, Sisolak imposed lockdowns, mandated masking, and school closures. Nevada’s unemployment rate spiked to over 30 percent and still remains the third highest rate at above five percent. As reported by The Globe, Sisolak shuttered small businesses and churches– deeming them “non essential,” overdose deaths have tripled among Nevadans and fatalities have more than doubled among the Hispanic community from 2019-2020, and Nevada’s public schools rank at the bottom in the nation.

Sheriff Joe Lombardo and John Lee did not provide a statement by the time of publishing, but we will update the story when and if they do.