This Former Miss Nevada Is Running For Congress

Lisa Song Sutton has tried it all. The 34-year-old, who moved to Nevada soon after graduating law school at the University Miami, began a number of agencies in her new residence, including a shipping store called Ship Las Vegas, real estate swimwear corporations, and also a specialty bakery called Sin City Cupcakes. She’s also a normal supporter to Forbes. And, starting in 2014, she spent 18 months ruling the pageant circuit, first as Miss Las Vegas and then Miss Nevada United States. Her next venture? Running for office.


Although as Sutton, a Republican, tells MTV News, running to resemble Nevada’s 4th Congressional District wasn’t initially in her plans. Rather, she was galvanized soon after clients of Ship Las Vegas — which she operated in a northeast Las Vegas neighborhood she describes as “challenging,” where a vacant Walmart is the next building over — instructed her they felt let down by a congressman Sutton says “had gone D.C. On them" because he seemingly moved to the capital. (The district is now represented by Representative Steven Horsford, a Democrat. His campaign told MTV News that he “is a native Nevadan, with deep roots in the community. Steven's residence is in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he maintains housing in the Washington, D.C., Location where he works on legislation essential to his constituents.”) Sutton also opposes gun reform legislation put forth by Horsford, who introduced the Break the Cycle of Violence Act that provides federal grants to communities for gun violence intervention, and what she describes as “centralized, big-government control over our lives.”


Sutton’s campaign platform prioritizes firm and Second Amendment rights, along with supporting the armed forces and offering even more funding to the government’s immigration corporations. While the Trump administration has already requested billions of dollars for the president’s long-threatened “border wall,” Sutton advocates for what she calls “a pragmatic, realistic approach” to immigration reform.


Sutton, a first-generation immigrant aesthetics queen turned entrepreneur turned politician, believes that anyone who cares about their communities can and would make their voices heard in the political process. She speaks to MTV News about running as a young Republican woman and why winning an aesthetics pageant has helped her campaign.


MTV News: As soon as did you determine to run for Miss Nevada?


Lisa Song Sutton: It was the fall of 2013, and I competed for my local title which was Miss Las Vegas. I won, which allowed me to define Las Vegas at the state level for Miss Nevada. That pageant was in May of 2014, and I won that title.


MTV News: Did you think that pageant work transfers to politics at all?


Sutton: It certainly does in the sense that if you're very focused on the community side of [pageantry] work, you work with a ton of nonprofits. So that's exactly what I did. I did nearly 500 community appearances. I was volunteering in schools, reading in hospitals, working with multiple nonprofits… It was very similar to the work that did While I interned for Arizona Senator John McCain [in 2005]. It was sitting down, talking to people, hearing their problems, and then any time If I was Miss Nevada, I was figuring out which nonprofit to route them to. Which nonprofit partners did we have that can maybe help them with their situation, or what they were encountering?


MTV News: At what point did you determine to run for Congress?


Sutton: It certainly was not in the plan. It came about because I opened the second location of my shipping store, Ship Las Vegas... An abandoned Walmart is our next-door neighbor up there. It's unfortunate — it's an area of town that's a little bit failed to notice. We took a chance on the neighborhood and apprehensively opened up. I'm an entrepreneur, I'm eternally optimistic.


[The] very first clientele we had the day we opened were these two little old girls who lived in these apartments across the street, and so they were so happy they could at least purchase stamps. Without us they had to take a bus to the closest post office, which is a 45-minute journey one-way on a bus. They required two things: a location to purchase stamps plus a secure place to post their mail because that's how they pay their utility expenses. That set the tone for our store’s presence in that neighborhood. We were there to help, we're there to allocate a much-needed resource.


I was so surprised to be able to see that in this city of so much abundance, that we had this pocket of society that was just sort of attempting to get by on their own. I was like, “What more can be done here?” I began to hear from our clientele that they were irritated with the current congressman, [and] I realized that someone should just run against this guy… It just really sparked something in me and I just felt a calling have the ability to stand up and do more for this community and for my community.


MTV News: What does campaigning look like for you? 


Sutton: My district is the biggest in land mass in the state. It encompasses a total of seven counties, so I'm averaging approximately 2,000 miles a month driving around. I was just in a copper mine two weeks back. Outdoor of the hospitality industry, our [primary] economic drivers are mining and agriculture. As soon as you get out of Clark County, the rest of the district is all rural areas.


MTV News: What measures, if any, would you support to combat the climate crisis?


Sutton: Of course the environment is very crucial because this is what is going to be left for us. For you and me, for as soon as we begin families, our kids, our grandkids… Why don't we reward the firms that actually are being stewards to the environment? Alternatively opposed to having this punishment, where each person is worried about getting a big, giant fine? Why aren't we favorable these firms for setting trends, being good stewards of the environment and really setting good examples that these other corporations can follow, and then who ends up benefiting? All of us, and the environment.


MTV News: What laws and legislation do you support to create ensure that kids are safe from shootings in their schools?


Sutton: I'm a very strong Second Amendment advocate, having grown up with firearms and firearm safety. I do know how key it is for law-abiding citizens have the ability to physical training that right and have that right protected. Coming from a military family member, my dad taught me how to shoot If I was nine. I grew up with firearm safety, firearm responsibility, and I know especially as a woman, that firearms are the most productive way to equalize a dangerous situation.*


All of that mentioned, keeping kids safe in school is an absolute number one priority. There's no reason that any child should feel unsafe as soon as they're at school, any time they're there to learn. I think there is lots of work that can be done around exploring how we can efficiently do that. I've read stuff where they're attempting to figure out: Is it better for us to have armed staff on sight at these schools? What's the perfect course of action? Unfortunately, there's no tidy answer. It's one that has to be actively worked through.


Editor’s note: According to a 2017 Pew survey, 71 percent of gun owners who are females listed protection as a top reason for possessing firearm. Although, research shows that having a gun in your household makes you more likely to be a victim of gun violence, not less.


MTV News: What is the government's obligation, if there really is any, to lessen the student cash advance burden?


Sutton: I think we have to sort of go to the root of the problem, and it's looking at not only the very high cost of what a college education is currently, although also getting away from that culture where we've really pushed young people into thinking that college is the only way that they can design a successful life for themselves. We have to get away from that culture of constantly pushing college upon everybody, because some days college isn't for each person, and grad school isn't for everyone.


MTV News: So what governmental response would you support?


Sutton: Like I mentioned, not only do we have the high cost of student education, although there's also this culture that's been perpetuated for a very long time. I think we're beginning to be able to see a bit of a shift, however it takes more voices. For a long time it was, “You must go to college, that's the only way you're going to be successful. It does not matter what your degree is and also it is irrelevant if you're undecided, just go to college.” For those who aren't fiscally willing to go, all that does is that they wind up with an accumulating debt and so they come out and maybe they have a degree, maybe they don't, and maybe they wind up using it or not, and it's detrimental.


MTV News: you are a daughter of an immigrant. What sort of immigration legislation do you support?


Sutton: Representative Chip Roy has introduced legislation that would designate the cartels as foreign terrorists agencies. I think that was a long time coming… What we're fighting down there really is the cartel. We're not fighting poor migrant families that hope to design a higher end life for them and their kids. I think we really have give attention to who the enemy is.


Editor’s note: Experts have cautioned against classifying cartels as terrorist firms, noting that doing so also misunderstands the U.S.’S role in exacerbating the scenario. Moreover, at least 5,400 children have been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, and hundreds more families have taken up residence in the Matamoros refugee camps.


MTV News: Does that mean you hope to focus deportation efforts on certain groups, whether that's recent border crossers, convicted criminals, or national security threats? Or do you wish to fully halt deportations altogether? Are there certain levels to your approach here?


Sutton: I think we have to be realistic, right? If someone says we're going to deport everybody who is here illegally, tell me how that's implemented? I think we have to take a pragmatic, realistic approach to this stuff. There has to be some order kind of expedited pathway in relation to procuring that legal immigration. I think we have to consider of that and we really have to explore a pragmatic, realistic approach that provides legal citizenship for those who wish to be here, who aspire to construct a higher class of life, that's work related, and without issuing damage to our society.


MTV News: What is your approach for deportations, then?


Sutton: It has to be usual sense. It's literally not feasible to be extreme one way or the other. If we're really interested in committing to solutions and committing to actually resolving this in a reasonable way.


MTV News: Young people usually are more liberal than older generations. How come do you suggest it’s key to be a young Republican candidate in today's political environment?


Sutton: I think it's essential for young people to have a voice. I think it's critical for conservative girls to have a voice. I think it's critical for young agency company founders to have a voice. We care about our firms and we care about our communities. It's time for us to prepare that known.


MTV News: It’s Women's History Month. Who are a few of the females who have inspired you?


Lisa Song Sutton: Certainly Sandra Day O'Connor. I'm sure you hear this one often, although my mom is just — I'm so blessed to have a really strong, accommodating family member and my mom is my rock. And then some of my company partners, Danielle from Sin City Cupcakes, Cathy Kuo with Christy’s International Real Estate, [and] Sarah Nehf with the Shipping Stores. I'm blessed to be partnered with these incredibly strong, independent, capable young females. They keep me grounded, they keep me motivated, and thus I'm really blessed.