Rick Shepherd
Republican | Nevada
Candidate Profile
Leans Liberal
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Rick Shepherd
Party
Republican
Election Year
2026
Election
Primary
Race
U.S. Rep, Dist. 2
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
UNR, Reno, BS, 1993-1998
WORK & MILITARY
Candidate did not provide
AFFILIATIONS
NAACP, Environment & Climate Jutice Chair, 2016-2020
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
None
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
NV CD2, 2016-2020
ENDORSEMENTS
OTHER (1)
Anti-Zionist America PAC AZAPAC
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
LIBERAL
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (1)
Bernie Sanders (2020)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (0)
OTHER INFORMATION
Candidate profile. KUNR Public Radio. 23 Mar 2026.
Candidate Q&A. This Is Reno 2026 Election Guide.
Rick Shepherd participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey in 2018. Ballotpedia lists issues included on Shepherd's campaign website in 2016.
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death.
Disagree
Fertilized eggs lack a brain, consciousness, or sentience. Granting full legal rights overrides pregnant women's bodily autonomy, forcing them to sustain another organism against their will unlike any other person. Conception-to-death laws risk delaying care for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and nonviable cases, harming women. They restrict IVF and certain contraception. "Until natural death" eliminates end-of-life choices for suffering adults. Protection should start at viability or birth.
The lives of human embryos created through artificial methods ought to be protected from purposeful destruction.
Strongly Disagree
Embryos created through artificial methods like IVF lack a brain, consciousness, or sentience. They are potential life, not persons. Protecting them from purposeful destruction would ban standard IVF by prohibiting surplus embryo creation and disposal, blocking infertile people from building families. This is inconsistent with natural embryo loss and overrides reproductive autonomy. Legal rights should begin at viability or birth, not lab fertilization.
Under what circumstances should an elective abortion be allowed?
Elective abortion should be allowed under any circumstances the pregnant woman chooses. It is her body and her choice alone. No one has the right to force her to sustain another organism with her body against her will. This principle applies to no other person. Embryos and early fetuses lack brain function consciousness or sentience. Potential life does not override an actual person's bodily autonomy. Legal access must remain unrestricted up to viability.
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Disagree
Abortion providers including Planned Parenthood should not receive taxpayer funds from any government level including Title X. A woman has the absolute right to choose abortion as her body her choice alone. That private decision does not require forcing taxpayers to subsidize it. Elective procedures must be paid for by the patient private insurance or voluntary donations. Legal access stands without public money.
The Comstock Act, which bans interstate transportation of abortion-inducing drugs, should be enforced.
Disagree
The Comstock Act should not be enforced. A woman has the absolute right to access abortion-inducing drugs as part of her body her choice alone. This archaic 1873 law banning interstate transportation interferes with private medical decisions and bodily autonomy. Potential life does not override an actual person's right to safe medication abortion. Legal access must remain unrestricted.
ECONOMY
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Agree
Free enterprise works only when balanced with strong social programs. Unchecked markets create extreme inequality, worker exploitation, and boom-bust cycles that undermine long-term productivity. Robust public programs in healthcare, education, housing, and income support build a stable, healthy, educated workforce and prevent social breakdown. This balance sustains innovation and private property while ensuring broad opportunity and economic mobility for all.
People who can afford to pay more taxes should do so in order to provide relief for working families.
Neutral
Improving the well-being of the least among us and working families is an important goal.
The government should cut spending in order to reduce the national debt.
Strongly Agree
Strongly agree. Cut government spending to lower the national debt. Begin immediately with the Department of War. Support DOGE efforts to eliminate waste and inefficiency.
List your top 3-5 priorities to eliminate government waste.
Top priorities to eliminate government waste: 1. Department of War: slash its massive budget and contractor waste. 2. Every agency created post 9/11: eliminate entirely and return them to the nothing they once were. 3. Federal Reserve: end its unchecked money creation and bailouts that distort markets and fuel debt. These target the largest sources of inefficiency and overreach.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
Individuals and businesses must never be required to provide services that violate their moral or religious beliefs. Religious freedom is a core right. Forcing participation in acts against conscience destroys liberty. No government has the authority to compel such violations.
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
Separation of church and state means the government cannot establish an official religion, cannot force religious participation, and cannot punish people for their beliefs or lack of beliefs. It also means the government cannot compel individuals or businesses to violate their religious or moral conscience to provide services. The state stays out of religion and religion stays out of running the state. No taxpayer funding of churches and no government control over religious practice.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D) Taxpayer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be defunded.
Healthcare should be free at point of service. Government must fully fund and deliver universal care so every person receives treatment without any cost when they need it. This removes financial barriers and treats healthcare as a basic human right.
The government should keep a database of people with various ongoing medical illnesses to assess the economic burden of treatment.
Disagree
The government has no business keeping a database of people with medical illnesses to track economic burden. This invades privacy and treats sick individuals as cost statistics rather than human beings. Healthcare decisions belong between patients and doctors, not in federal tracking systems.
NATIONAL SECURITY
With regard to America's foreign policy, which view most closely resembles yours: A) The United States should intervene whenever freedom is threatened. B) The United States should selectively help countries trying to grow democracy and fight tyranny. C) The United States has become too involved in others' policies and should remain focused on issues regarding our own sovereignty unless in imminent danger. D) The United States should stay out of foreign conflicts completely.
The United States should stay out of foreign conflicts completely. No more wars, no more interventions, no more aid to foreign governments, and no more troops stationed abroad. Endless foreign entanglements drain resources, kill people, and create new enemies. America's only legitimate military role is direct defense of its own borders and territory. Bring everyone home and end the forever wars.
The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.
Strongly Disagree
Claims that the Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, or global economic threats to the United States are exaggerated. These narratives mainly serve to justify bloated Department of War spending and endless foreign interventions. The CCP focuses on its own development and regional stability. America drops 40 bombs daily, China hasn't dropped a bomb in 40 years.
Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?
No, the US-Israel relationship is not important to America. It actively harms us. We send $3.8+ billion yearly in aid. USS Liberty (1967): Israel attacked a US Navy ship, killing 34 Americans. Covered up. 9/11 era: Dragged us into trillion-dollar wars for Israeli benefit. Iran: Pushes perpetual US confrontation and war risk. America First. Israel must cease to exist.
Islamic terrorism is a threat to the United States' national security.
Strongly Disagree
Islamic terrorism is manufactured state terrorism. Terrorist organizations like ISIS are Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad funded proxies used to justify endless wars and regime change that advance Israeli goals. This represents blowback from United States foreign policy rather than any real threat to American national security.
IMMIGRATION
Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?
Immigrants who are healthy, have no criminal record, and can support themselves without public aid should be allowed to immigrate to the United States. We need basic health and admissibility inspections. This policy enabled millions of documented immigrants to arrive and fuel national growth and industry similar to the successes seen in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
I support the existence of sanctuary cities to protect undocumented persons.
Disagree
No. Sanctuary cities protect undocumented immigrants who entered the country illegally and prevent proper enforcement of immigration laws. That said, due process is important. I do not support the Gestapo tactics of unidentified masked thugs kidnapping people off the streets.
EDUCATION
I support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving control back to states and communities.
Strongly Agree
Eliminating the Department of Education is essential. Control over education belongs with states and local communities, not federal bureaucrats in Washington. This restores accountability to parents, cuts waste, ends one-size-fits-all mandates, and allows innovation that actually improves outcomes for American children.
Foreign governments should be prohibited from funding American education.
Strongly Agree
VALUES
Attempts to physically or socially transition a child to the opposite sex constitute child abuse.
Strongly Agree
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.
Disagree
Marriage today is nothing more than a legal contract between consenting adults. The government has no business enforcing any religious or sacred definition. It should stay out of redefining or regulating personal relationships entirely.
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I believe in God and strive to follow the example of Jesus. I pray for guidance, justice, and the defeat of evil forces like the Zionist project. I try to remain non-violent like Jesus, though I struggle with it when confronting predators and corruption. Faith is personal — how one finds it matters less than having it and acting righteously.
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
No. Most nations around the world, including 176 countries and nearly all in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, require voter identification, often photo ID, to cast a ballot. This basic safeguard prevents fraud and protects election integrity. The United States should adopt the same common-sense standard instead of allowing voting without any ID.
EQUALITY
Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports or occupy biological women's spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women's shelters, or prison.
Strongly Agree
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
What do you believe is the most reliable energy source that will supply the growing demand for electricity?
The most reliable energy source for growing electricity demand is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). It delivers constant 24/7 baseload power using abundant thorium, with passive safety, minimal waste, and high efficiency.
ABOUT YOU
Have you ever been penalized for sexual misconduct in either civil or criminal court? If so, please explain.
No.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, please explain.
No.
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Moderate
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
Government has a responsibility to protect children from sexual exploitation during online activities.
Neutral
Parents are responsible for their child's online activity. The government's role is to help parents by prosecuting predators and removing illegal child sexual abuse material, not to act as the parent through surveillance or age verification mandates.
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
No restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety. Background checks, red flag laws, waiting periods, magazine limits, and assault weapon bans are all unconstitutional infringements. Law-abiding citizens have the absolute right to own any firearm they choose for self-defense, hunting, and resisting tyranny. Public safety is best protected by armed, responsible citizens, not government disarmament schemes.
