Reid memorial set for Jan. 8 in Las Vegas

A memorial service honoring the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who died on Tuesday at the age of 82, will be held in Las Vegas in January.

The service will take place Jan. 8 at 11 a.m. at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas.

Reid’s office said in a release that the event will be livestreamed. Invitees will include family, friends and colleagues of Reid.

His office added that information about the invited guests and tickets will follow at a later date. The release added that tickets will be distributed through Reid’s office and not the Smith Center. 

The Hill has reached out to Reid’s office for more information.

Reid was one of the Senate’s longest-serving majority leaders and a Democrat who played a central role in enacting former President Obama’s biggest legislative accomplishments.

He died after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago. He served as majority leader from 2007 to 2015 before retiring from politics in 2017 as one of the most influential and powerful Democratic leaders ever to serve in Washington.

President Biden on Wednesday ordered that flags outside government buildings be flown at half-staff to honor the late senator. 

In a statement Tuesday, Obama said he wrote a letter to Reid that read, “You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect. I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination.”

“The world is better cause of what you’ve done,” Obama added in the letter. “Not bad for a skinny, poor kid from Searchlight, [Nev.].”