The race for Assembly District 37 in Summerlin is all but guaranteed to be close again this year — but the stakes are even higher.
Two years ago, Assemblywoman Shea Backus (D-Las Vegas) won the race by about 800 votes, the third-smallest margin among the state Assembly contests. It marked a return to the Legislature for Backus, an attorney who is an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation, after first taking office in 2018 and being unseated in 2020.
But this year’s race could have statewide significance, as it is among a handful of seats that may determine whether Democrats maintain their two-thirds supermajority in the lower chamber — which would allow them to override any veto from Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, as long as they also hold two-thirds of the state Senate seats…