Born in Goldfield, Nevada on September 9, 1911, Walter Baring Jr. came by politics naturally. During Goldfield's heyday, his father was an Esmeralda County commissioner and an assemblyman. The family later moved to Reno, where the elder Walter owned a furniture store.

Harry Reid had a long, hard fight to get to the top of Nevada politics, and he's had to struggle just as hard to stay there. Born December 2, 1939, in Searchlight, Nevada, Reid attended high school in Henderson, where one of his teachers was future Nevada governor Mike O'Callaghan. Reid was elected student body president and graduated with a college scholarship. At Utah State University, he was active in campus politics, serving as freshman class president and organizing the campus's first Young Democrats chapter.