Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican challenger Sam Brown are going through off in Nevada, as Democrats struggle to carry onto the seat and their slender majority within the Senate.
Polls confirmed Rosen main within the race, her first reelection bid, as Election Day approached. However the state has traditionally posed polling difficulties, and was dwelling to the closest Senate race within the nation in 2022.
Republicans have not received a Senate race within the Silver State since 2012, however they flipped the governor’s mansion within the final election, which recommended that the Senate seat may very well be in play in 2024.
Brown is a West Level graduate and fight veteran who was awarded a Purple Coronary heart for his service in Afghanistan, the place a roadside bomb explosion left him with third-degree burns. He went on to grow to be a small enterprise proprietor, and has campaigned on border safety and financial points. Republicans poured cash into promoting within the state within the remaining weeks of the marketing campaign looking for to spice up Brown amid heavy Democratic funding in promoting — particularly on abortion.
Democrats hammered Brown over abortion all through the marketing campaign, as the difficulty has galvanized voters nationwide because the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortion can be on the poll this yr in Nevada, with a measure that might enshrine abortion as a person proper within the state structure.
Exterior of abortion, financial points have additionally been particularly salient in Nevada this cycle. With an economic system largely based mostly round tourism and hospitality surrounding Las Vegas, Nevada is dwelling to a big working class inhabitants. The state’s economic system was among the many most impacted by pandemic closures in 2020, resulting in a a lot slower restoration than in different states, and spurring frustration with Democrat-led insurance policies. Brown seized on the difficulty in the course of the marketing campaign, together with immigration — two points on which Republicans have been taking goal on the Biden-Harris administration’s insurance policies.
Nonetheless, for Rosen — a 67-year-old former pc programmer and synagogue president — the race appeared to swing in her favor after Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off her presidential marketing campaign. Whereas President Biden had struggled to garner help within the state, Harris’ entrance appeared to shrink the margin by which Democrats needed to overperform the highest of the ticket. That dynamic was particularly pronounced in Nevada, the Prepare dinner Political Report famous in an evaluation, altering its ranking from a toss-up to lean Democrat in August.