Joy Hoover
Joy Hoover (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Nevada's 1st Congressional District. Hoover declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on June 9, 2026.
Hoover completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Joy Hoover earned a high school diploma from Escanaba High School. Hoover's career experience includes being an entrepreneur.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Nevada's 1st Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on June 9, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
General election for U.S. House Nevada District 1
J.E. Houston (Independent) is running in the general election for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| | J.E. Houston (Independent) ![]() | |
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary
Democratic primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1
Incumbent Dina Titus (D), Gabriel Cornejo (D), Joy Hoover (D), and Alex Pereszlenyi (D) are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on June 9, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| | Dina Titus | |
| | Gabriel Cornejo | |
| | Joy Hoover ![]() | |
| | Alex Pereszlenyi | |
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary
Republican primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1
The following candidates are running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on June 9, 2026.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Joy Hoover completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hoover's responses.
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Hoover founded The Cupcake Girls, a nonprofit organization serving individuals vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking, and later launched Esōes Cosmetics, a safety-focused company developing tools and education to help prevent drug-facilitated assault and violence. Over the course of her career, she has helped raise millions of dollars to support survivors, caregivers, and families in crisis.
After moving to Nevada more than 16 years ago, Hoover and her husband built their life in Las Vegas, where they are raising their two children. Her work has focused on strengthening neighborhoods, supporting kinship and foster caregivers, and expanding access to safety resources and economic opportunity.
Hoover says she is running for Congress to prioritize safer schools, safer homes, and safer streets; lower costs for working families; expand access to affordable healthcare; protect reproductive freedom; support small businesses and unions; strengthen democratic accountability; and ensure government works for everyday Nevadans.- Stability Builds Safety Families cannot feel safe when their lives are constantly hanging by a thread. One medical bill, job loss, or disaster should not push a family to the brink. Joy supports healthcare access that is not tied to employment, expanded paid leave and unemployment protections, disaster relief and insurance reform, and emergency housing funding. Safety starts with a solid foundation.
- Options Build Opportunity Your American Dream should be within reach. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living, and small businesses struggle while big corporations get bailouts. Joy supports investing in infrastructure and transportation so people can move more freely through their communities. She backs more access to SBA loans and grants for small and local businesses, paid apprenticeships tied to trades, and stronger worker protections so jobs lead to careers. She also supports limits on predatory lending so families aren’t trapped in cycle of high interest debt.
- Action Builds Trust Hoover believes trust in government depends on accountability and clear rules. She supports banning stock trading in Congress, strengthening ethics and transparency laws, establishing term limits, and reforming campaign finance rules to reduce the influence of large donors. Trust is built when leaders live by the same standards as the people they represent.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 3, 2026

