Democrats win in Nevada

Reno, Nevada. –

Incumbent Democrats completed a delayed sweep of three seats in Nevada on Friday, which has been the western battleground Republicans have targeted in their bid to take control of the US House of Representatives.

Representatives Dina Titus, Stephen Horsford and Susie Lee have all edged out GOP challengers in tight congressional races that have drawn tens of millions of dollars in outside spending in Las Vegas and surrounding South American Nevada.

Counting the ballots took several days in part because of a mail-in ballot system created by the Nevada State Legislature in 2020 that requires counties to accept postmarked ballots on Election Day if they arrive four days later.

“It has become one of the most important elections of our lives,” Horsford said Friday.

But despite deep divisions in the electorate and pre-election predictions that major change may be on the horizon, there will be no new faces in next year’s House delegation to Nevada.

Nevada’s only Republican member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Amoudi, retained his seat for six terms by defeating Elizabeth Mercedes Krause in the second rural district in northern Nevada where no Democrat has won.

Amoudi, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has won at least 58% of the vote since winning his first full term in a special election in 2011. His vast district includes Reno, Sparks, and Carson City, as well as rural areas. From South Lake Tahoe to Utah Line.

After re-election to a seventh term, Titus took on Republican Mark Robertson’s challenge in his party’s traditional stronghold of Las Vegas, where the GOP had hoped redistricting would help him win the district’s first seat for the first time since 1998.

Dean of Nevada’s congressional delegation, and facing a rare primary challenge from a Bernie Sanders supporter, Titus complained that Democratic strategists had weakened him for the first time in years by sacrificing some traditional territory in exchange for redistricting gains in neighboring swing districts.

But on Thursday evening, she was confident she had survived the challenge and issued a statement thanking her supporters.

“The electors sent a loud and clear message that they wanted someone in their corner who would never back down from a fight,” said Titus.

Robertson, a retired Army colonel and business owner, dropped out of the race on Friday and made clear he will not allege voter fraud like former President Donald Trump and others after the 2020 election.

“This is how representative democracy works,” Robertson said in a written statement. “Although we came close, in the end we couldn’t overcome the 10-point advantage the Democrats have in this district.”

The other two seats have bounced between parties over the past decade and both were near the top of the GOP’s priority list in these midterm elections.

Horsford won a fourth term, and Republican Samuel Peters returned to the fourth district, which stretches from the suburbs of Las Vegas through the suburbs and rural areas to the Utah border.

He became the first black man to represent Nevada in Congress when he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. He lost in 2014 but has now won three in a row.

Peters, a veteran, lost the Republican congressional primary in 2020. Among the Nevada GOP congressional candidates, he was the one who closely allied himself with Trump.

Lee reaffirmed his strong support for abortion rights to win a third term by defeating Republican April Baker in southern Nevada’s 3rd District, which stretches to the Arizona state line.

She said voters “chose unity and respect over division and extremism”.

Baker, a Las Vegas attorney, narrowly lost her bid two years ago to impeach the Senate president. It was supported by anti-abortion groups but claimed that abortion was legal in Nevada within 24 weeks under a voter-approved procedure.

Lee told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that she believes many independent voters in Nevada, roughly a third of voters, support her.

“These freelancers are seriously swayed,” she said. Many people expected them to turn right. But many of them were young… Choosing to procreate was a huge motivator, and they worried about inflation but realized one side was trying to get results. »

Lee acknowledged that voters in Nevada, like the rest of the country, are worried about inflation, but argued that only Democrats are dealing with it.

She told the Associated Press that Republicans “are using it as a talking point and have no idea how to handle it.”

“Ask any Republican in Congress what he would do,” Lee told me, “and his only proposal was to cut corporate taxes and taxes for the rich… and cut Social Security and Medicare.” We’ve made investments in the economy through the Stimulus and Infrastructure Act and we’ve made the largest climate change investment in history. »

On Friday, Clark County Commander Joe Lombardo defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. In the crucial race for the Senate in Nevada, Democratic Sen. Kathryn Cortez Masto was slightly behind her rival Adam Laxalt.