It’s an early Sunday morning and Maggy Krell is hyping up volunteers on bus number one. Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down” booms from the Bluetooth speaker.
Krell is a Democrat running for the California State Assembly’s sixth district in Sacramento, currently represented by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty who is running for mayor.
But today, she’s taking her campaign — and three busloads of volunteers — across state lines, to Reno, Nevada. The neighboring state is one of ten where the constitutional right to abortion is on the ballot this election. In Nevada, it’s called Question 6.
Maggy Krell joins volunteers on a bus to Reno on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.Laura Fitzgerald/CapRadioKrell was an attorney for Planned Parenthood and helped pave the way for California’s Proposition 1 protecting abortion access that passed in 2022. She says with former President Donald Trump on the ballot, Nevada needs the same protection.
“It was a total nightmare when he was president,” Krell said. “And this supreme court and the hostile environment that this supreme court has created for access to reproductive rights, it becomes increasingly dangerous.”
Krell is a Deputy Attorney General in California. Throughout her career she has prosecuted sex traffickers and used the law to protect victims of domestic violence. Her resume may sound familiar to some – Vice President Kamala Harris was her boss when Harris was the state’s Attorney General.
“And look, we were in the foxhole together on some of the biggest cases that pushed California forward,” Krell said.
And now, pushing Nevada forward is top of mind, not just for Krell, but for the volunteers that came with her to canvas in Reno.
They walked the streets of a quiet neighborhood going door to door when a car honked at the group. Candelaria Vargas appreciated the support.
“Yay, thank you! Aww, did you see the mom and daughter? That was so sweet! I love it!” Vargas said.
Vargas is pregnant and said if she’s walking anyways, she may as well walk for reproductive freedom.
“I am in my reproductive years,” Vargas said. “As a person who has gone through pregnancy, there's an unlimited amount of scenarios where people will need abortion care to save their lives or otherwise.”
Maggy Krell and a group of volunteers campaign for Nevada's Question 6 in Reno on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.Laura Fitzgerald/CapRadio
Question 6 is polling well among Nevadans. It could win approval from almost two thirds of voters. And while the purpose of Krell’s trip was to talk about reproductive rights, some of her volunteers hoped they would have the chance to talk about Harris, too.
Unlike Question 6, the presidential race is extremely close in Nevada – both candidates are polling around 47%. The future of Nevada’s reproductive care landscape could change depending on the next president.
But Krell says bringing folks to the state next door isn’t really about changing minds, but rather about getting those who support Question 6 to actually vote.
Patricia Lynch is part of this group. She’s 76 years-old and said she fought for reproductive rights in the 1970s, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade the Constitution protected the right to have an abortion. Lynch said she’s glad to see Californians walking in a battleground state.
“You can walk around California all you want, it won't make any difference,” Lynch said.
Lynch was friendly to Krell and her canvassers, like most of the people they talked to. But not every Nevadan welcomed Californians to the swing state.
America Ramirez said she experienced this first hand when she knocked on a woman’s door and was asked where she was from. She told her she’d come from California.
“She was just like, oh well like tell them to send me Nevadans and you guys should take care of your own state,” Ramirez said.
While she won’t always get a warm welcome, Krell said she’ll keep coming back to support reproductive rights in Nevada. Back in Sacramento, she’s poised to win in November over Republican candidate Nikki Ellis after emerging from the primary as the Democratic candidate in a blue district. Ellis has not responded to multiple interview requests.
Krell said constituents in Assembly District 6 care about public safety, affordability, and housing, but for now, she’s all in on Nevada.
“It's frankly, more important than anything going on for me in this District,” Krell added.
For her, protecting access to reproductive care is paramount this election, and this year that means leaving California.
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