County commissioner’s racist comment on Nevada Governor’s wife ignites backlash from both parties

August 12, 2021

A “blatantly racist” comment made by Nye County Commissioner Donna Cox against Gov. Steve Sisolak’s (D-NV) wife ignited backlash from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

What happened: The Nevada Independent first broke the news of the three-term Republican commissioner’s racist remark on Sunday.

Cox claimed “the conspiracy theories we’ve said about the New World Order and Agenda 21 have come to life” as she attacked Kathy Sisolak – born Kathy Won Ong – during the commission meeting on Aug. 3 over the reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate in Nevada.
“Now how long [Gov. Sisolak had] known her I have no idea, but she is Chinese,” Cox continued. “And you put two and two together, they actually said that her family in China own a company that’s making a lot of money off of this issue. That she’s here in the United States promoting and selling all these masks and emergency equipment and everything, and they’re all being shipped over from China.”
However, Cox failed to provide proof of her claims when she spoke with the Reno Gazette-Journal on Monday, saying she “didn’t have time to talk” about the topic.

Calling out: Sisolak took to social media to address the racist comment at the meeting without name-dropping Cox in his statement.

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The AAPI Democratic Caucus of Southern Nevada, Nevada ACLU Director Athar Haseebullah, One APIA Nevada, Nevada Assembly Republican Caucus and the Senate Republicans Twitter account condemned Cox’s remarks at the meeting, 8News Now reported.

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Clark County Commissioner for District F, Justin Jones, and Clark County Commissioner for District D, William McCurdy II, also took to social media to condemn Cox.

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Other details: Kathy Sisolak was born in Ely, Nev., in February 1958 and is the youngest of four children.

Her family moved to Las Vegas, and her immigrant father became the first Chinese dealer on Fremont Street.
She earned a degree in Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and co-founded Hobbs, Ong & Associates in 1996.

Featured Image via KPVM (left), Nevada Women’s History Project (right)

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