From Prison Abolition to TPS Protections: Horsford Aligns with PLAN’s Far-Left Network in NV-04 Race

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) is once again aligning himself with radical progressive operatives and left-wing funded NGOs as he seeks re-election in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District. 

In a recent X post, the congressman highlighted a roundtable with members of Nevada’s Haitian and Ethiopian communities focused on the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) changes. 

Photos from the event show him seated with community members—and, as noted in circulating images, with Laura Martin, Executive Director and Board member of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN NV). 

I met with members of Nevada’s Haitian and Ethiopian communities to hear how changes to Temporary Protected Status are putting their jobs, families, and futures at risk.

I’m pushing for the TPS Review Act to create additional avenues to protect TPS and pressing federal officials… pic.twitter.com/q3E0P0RsH1

— Rep. Steven Horsford (@RepHorsford) August 19, 2026

This is not Horsford’s first brush with Martin or PLAN. 

In July 2024, this outlet exposed Martin’s deleted social media posts in which she wished for the “campaign-ending news” of President Donald Trump’s death and then claimed the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt was “staged.” 

PLAN, which styles itself as advancing a “socially and environmentally just state,” partners with groups including Planned Parenthood, the Culinary Union, Chispa, Mass Liberation Project, and Silver State Equality. Despite the nonpartisan branding, Martin’s record of incendiary anti-Republican rhetoric has not stopped Nevada Democrats from collaborating with the organization on legislation. 

Martin’s 2024 rhetoric earned swift condemnation in statements provided to this reporter from the offices of Nevada’s senior Democratic officials. 

A spokesperson for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto stated: 

“Senator Cortez Masto believes calls for political violence are wrong and strongly condemns the irresponsible rhetoric from Laura Martin.” 

Chris D’Aloia, Communications Director for Rep. Susie Lee, told The Nevada Globe: “Congresswoman Lee strongly denounces political violence and any calls for it, including the disturbing comments from Laura Martin.” 

“Senator Rosen strongly disagrees with these comments and believes that calls for political violence and hate have no place in this country. She has called for us to come together as Americans and reject baseless conspiracy theories on both sides.”

According to PLAN’s own website, the organization—founded in 1994 to put “people and planet first”—organizes around core issue areas that include environmental justice, criminal justice, and immigration. The board consists of Laura Martin and activists from Culinary Union 226, SEIU 1107, NAACP, and Nevada NOW.

Environmental justice is described as a “core principle,” with the group supporting fights against nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, urban water grabs in rural Nevada, the ban of fracking, and the targeting of Nevada mining companies.

On criminal justice, PLAN has long championed ending cash bail, restoring voting rights for former inmates, police “oversight,” and “mass liberation” efforts aimed at reducing incarceration.

PLAN’s commitment to reducing incarceration was on full display in 2019 when the organization formally supported Assembly Bill 236, the major criminal justice overhaul package championed by Nevada Democrats with the involvement of then-Attorney General (and now gubernatorial candidate) Aaron Ford. The bill raised the felony theft threshold from $650 to $1,200, reclassifying retail and property thefts as misdemeanors and decreasing penalties for drug possession, trafficking and distribution, including fentanyl.

In Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on May 31, 2019, PLAN Policy Director Christine Saunders stated that the group “believes Nevada needs to be smarter on crime” and that “Assembly Bill 236 will help further that goal.”

Business owners and officials, including the former Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks, have linked the law to subsequent spikes in overdoses and organized retail theft across Nevada, including in Horsford’s district, with notable increases reported on the Las Vegas Strip and in other commercial areas. PLAN’s Mass Liberation Coalition was also cited by the ACLU as part of the broad progressive coalition that helped drive the 2019 reforms, and the organization joined public rallies promoting the bill. 

Its immigration work includes direct citizenship services, naturalization assistance, advocacy through the Nevada Immigrant Coalition (which PLAN helped found and continues to staff), and opposition to enforcement measures such as 287(g) agreements. Through its affiliated Mass Liberation Project (Nevada chapter), the network has gone further: organizers have explicitly called for abolishing prisons and the criminal legal system as currently constituted, branded as “transformative justice.”

Leslie Turner, a PLAN organizer who leads the mass liberation work, has stated, “I believe in abolishing prisons, and I feel like that is an attainable goal.” 

The Mass Liberation Project’s stated north star is grassroots organizing to dismantle the existing criminal legal system, including ending youth incarceration, closing jails, and advancing alternatives that eliminate traditional policing and imprisonment. PLAN and its partners have also engaged in discussions of “redirecting” police budgets toward social services and community programs. 

On immigration, PLAN’s campaigns pursue concrete policy outcomes that expand protections of non-citizens and limit enforcement. These include efforts to preserve and broaden Temporary Protected Status for groups such as Haitians and Ethiopians, create or maintain driver authorization cards for non-citizens regardless of status, block local-federal cooperation on immigration enforcement (including 287(g) programs), provide “know your rights” training and rapid-response networks against ICE activity, and facilitate pathways to citizenship and work authorization. 

Their goal is to reduce deportations, shield non-citizens from removal, and integrate larger numbers of individuals without permanent legal status into Nevada’s workforce and civic life. The group has received significant foundation support, including a share of roughly $1.7 million from Borealis Philanthropy’s Spark Justice Fund for cash-bail abolition work—money explicitly aimed at building power in communities most impacted by the justice system. 

Horsford’s own office deepens these progressive ties. His Chief of Staff is Yvanna Cancela, a longtime Nevada Democratic operative and former state senator who has maintained a documented affiliation with PLAN itself. Cancela’s official legislative biography lists her as a member of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada from 2012 onward. Corporate records further show she previously served as President of PLAN, and contemporaneous accounts describe her as active with the organization during her years as Culinary Workers Union political director and state senator. Cancela later served as Chief of Staff to Gov. Steve Sisolak and held senior roles in the Biden administration before joining Horsford’s congressional staff.

Horsford is seeking another term in NV-04 against Republican Cody Whipple, a telecommunications business owner who emerged from the GOP primary. 

The district covers northern Las Vegas/Clark County portions (including areas around the Strip and North Las Vegas) plus rural central Nevada counties. It is majority-minority: roughly 35–37% Hispanic/Latino, 36–37% non-Hispanic White, 15% Black, with smaller Asian and multiracial shares. Median household income sits in the mid-$70,000s; the Cook Partisan Voting Index is D+2.

Cook Political Report rates the race Likely Democratic; other forecasters (Inside Elections, Sabato) similarly lean or likely Democratic, reflecting Horsford’s incumbency advantage in a district that still favors Democrats even after recent rightward shifts in Nevada. 

Horsford’s latest photo-ops with PLAN’s Laura Martin fit a consistent pattern: close ties to progressive NGOs whose stated goals sit far outside the mainstream of Nevada’s working-class and rural voters, while carefully downplaying just how radical those partners are. Nevada voters in NV-04 will decide in November whether that coalition still matches the district’s priorities.