Nevada Senate race could decide control of US Senate

LAS VEGAS — A frenzied race for Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat is shaping as much as be one of the closest within the nation and each candidates hope their messages on abortion, immigration, inflation or public security will tip the stability of their favor.

The stakes for Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt are particularly excessive. The winner could decide which celebration controls the Senate and the GOP considers Nevada one of its finest alternatives to show a blue seat into pink.

The race has turn out to be more and more neck-and-neck in latest weeks, with many polls exhibiting the candidates only a proportion level or two aside. As Election Day attracts close to, each are persevering with to observe the identical campaign playbooks as their nationwide events, with Cortez Masto rallying voters round threats to abortion entry and Laxalt specializing in the economic system.

“We don’t need any more male politicians telling women what we can and can’t do with our own bodies,” Cortez Masto wrote in a publish pinned to the highest of her Twitter account in September. She has echoed the chorus in a number of marketing campaign advertisements, contending Laxalt would assist elevated abortion restrictions — and maybe a nationwide ban — if elected to Congress.

Laxalt, in the meantime, has the endorsement of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life and has known as himself “pro-life.” In a June news launch, Laxalt known as the U.S. Supreme Court’s resolution overturning Roe v. Wade “a historic victory for the sanctity of life.”

He has mentioned the change is “settled law” as a result of Nevada voters had already made abortion authorized, however he additionally expressed assist for a referendum that will limit abortion after 13 weeks as a substitute of the 24-week restrict at present allowed by the state structure.

If the Republican Party can flip just one Senate seat, they are going to win control of the chamber, together with the ability to control judicial nominations and coverage debates via 2024.

Still, Laxalt’s marketing campaign has labored to maintain the concentrate on points like immigration and the economic system moderately than abortion. He has repeatedly cited rising fuel costs and inflation as causes voters ought to select him over Cortez Masto.

“At some gas stations in Reno, gas prices have soared to $7 per gallon,” his marketing campaign wrote in an early October news launch. The assertion tried to pin the costs on Cortez Masto’s votes on vitality points, comparable to her efforts to restrict oil and fuel leasing on lands with “low or no” potential for improvement.

Cortez Masto is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in addition to the finance, Indian affairs and banking, housing and concrete affairs committees.

Both candidates have used their expertise as former attorneys common — Laxalt from 2015 to 2019 and Cortez Masto from 2007 to 2015 earlier than turning into senator in 2017 — to show their assist for regulation enforcement.

Laxalt has been endorsed by the Nevada Fraternal Order of Police and the Public Safety Alliance of Nevada. Cortez Masto has the endorsement of the Nevada Police Union, the Nevada Law Enforcement Coalition and the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers.

In early October, Cortez Masto introduced she helped to safe greater than $21 million in federal funding that will go to police departments, state authorities businesses and tribes to spice up regulation enforcement efforts and felony justice applications.

They have every have sought to court docket veterans, with Laxalt highlighting his service as a U.S. Navy choose advocate common in Iraq and an assistant professor of regulation on the U.S. Naval Academy. Cortez Masto has talked about laws she helped get via Congress, together with a invoice guaranteeing well being advantages and compensation for veterans uncovered to Agent Orange and others to guard VA advantages for scholar veterans and enhance entry to psychological well being providers.

Cortez Masto has had a massively profitable fundraising marketing campaign, elevating greater than $44 million and spending all however about $5 million by the top of September, in response to OpenSecrets, a corporation that tracks marketing campaign finance and spending information.

Laxalt introduced in additional than $13 million and spent about $9 million throughout the identical time interval however was aided by an inflow of political motion committee funding. Outside teams spent greater than $39 million opposing Cortez Masto and roughly $29 million opposing Laxalt, in response to OpenSecrets.

Some of that cash targeted on Spanish-language ads. The spending was an try to sway Latinos, who account for roughly 4 in 10 Nevada residents. Cortez Masto grew to become the primary Latina elected to Congress in 2016.

Nevada has rejected each GOP presidential candidate since 2004, however by more and more slender margins. In 2020, President Joe Biden received by solely 2.4 proportion factors.

Laxalt has shut ties to Trump. He co-chaired Trump’s 2020 reelection marketing campaign in Nevada and later promoted lies in regards to the election, spearheading authorized challenges to the vote-counting course of. Trump has visited Nevada twice to stump for Laxalt and GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo, who’s operating in opposition to Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.

This week former President Barack Obama announced plans to visit southern Nevada on Nov. 1 to rally for Cortez Masto, Sisolak and different Democratic incumbents within the state. Democrats hope the go to will inject enthusiasm into the race and drive Democratic voters to the polls.