Chris Giunchigliani

Christina R. Giunchigliani (; born November 27, 1954), commonly known as Chris G., is an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a Clark County Commissioner from 2007 until 2019. Giunchigliani has been active in Nevada politics since 1991, previously serving in the Nevada Assembly, 1991–2006.

Biography Giunchigliani was born to American parents in Lucca, Italy. The oldest of six children (three girls and three boys), Giunchigliani grew up in Chicago. She was sexually abused when she was eight years old and her sister was kidnapped and raped for three days.

Giunchigliani attended Avila College in Kansas City, Missouri. She worked in retail, bartended and waitressed to pay her way through college, graduating in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in special education.

Political career Giunchigliani began her career in union politics in Shawnee Mission, where she worked on communications and negotiations. She immediately got involved in union politics once she became a teacher in Las Vegas, rising until her election as president of the Clark County Education Association from 1983 through 1987 and as president of the Nevada State Education Association from 1987 through 1991. She led the fight in the Legislature through multiple sessions to end the use of capital punishment for juvenile defendants, introducing bills to ban the death penalty in juvenile cases three separate times. She opposed the death penalty in subsequent efforts as both a legislator and as a member of statewide coalitions against capital punishment. She opposed the "More Cops" tax, which sought to increase the sales tax to allow police departments to hire more officers, calling the tax "regressive." She advocated for economic development based on investment in "mom and pop" businesses rather than large corporate enterprises, referring to small businesses as the "backbone of our society." During the campaign, she employed grassroots tactics based on neighborhood canvassing.

In 2019, she founded a non-profit named after her deceased husband called Gray's Leadership Academy dedicated to providing leadership and ethics education for youth, LGBTQ+, people of color, and women interested in civic and campaign skills.

During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Giunchigliani endorsed Elizabeth Warren.

Runs for higher office 2018

Giunchigliani was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Nevada in 2018, but lost the primary to Steve Sisolak.