A Las Vegas airport has been renamed to honor former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Officials in Las Vegas announced on Tuesday they would rename McCarran Airport after Reid, who previously served as the city's mayor.

"For my whole life, I've been coming and going from McCarran Airport, since the first time I ever got on a plane, back in 1958. This airport has been my gateway to the world," the former senator said in a statement on Tuesday. "During my 35 years in Washington, I was here a lot. Home means Nevada, and for me, the airport long ago became synonymous with home."

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A ceremony was held Tuesday at Terminal 3 to celebrate the name change, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Reid and his wife could not attend the event due to concerns about COVID-19, but his son Rory participated in the event, saying his father "regretted not being able to be here" but "understands what an incredible honor this is for him," the Associated Press reported.

The decision to rename the airport comes after a yearslong campaign organized by Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who argued the history of Pat McCarran, the previous namesake of the airport, was full of racist, antisemitic, and xenophobic stances, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"Sen. McCarran, in retrospect, was not a perfect human being and did a lot and said a lot of bad things," Segerblom said at the ceremony. "To remove his name from what is now the multicultural center of the United States is very important. We are not the Nevada Sen. McCarran worked at or lived in. We are a very multicultural, diverse, a multiracial, a multi-ethnic city."

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It was also a gesture of goodwill toward Reid, who had contributed significantly to the airport's development. Reid helped the airport complete construction of Terminal 3 in 2012 and sponsored the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Clark County Director of Aviation Rosemary Vassiliadis said helped protect many local jobs.

Reid, the longest-running senator from Nevada, served in office from 1987 to 2017, a 30-year stint in the U.S. Congress.