A crucial Senate election in Nevada is unusually quiet for the battleground state

LAS VEGAS – In a state where presidential elections are typically intense, Nevada's U.S. Senate race was unusually sleepy.

The campaign pits Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen — a former computer programmer and synagogue president — against Republican Sam Brown, a retired Army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan. Both parties agree that the state is in the midst of a tight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump at the top, but that the Senate race has received little attention even though Rosen has emerged as the favorite.

Elected in her first term, Rosen has outspent Brown by more than 3-1 in the race, positioning herself as a non-ideological senator who will champion her home state on issues such as broadband internet access and a high-speed rail link to Southern California. Brown, who was awarded the Purple Heart, has championed his biography and the state's cost of living crisis, which is particularly acute among Nevada's working class. He found it difficult to gain traction despite receiving last-minute money from the Republican Party in late October, when Republicans, cheered by their party's high turnout in early voting, hoped Brown would live up to expectations in the race could turn your head.

“He hasn't really made a case for why we should get rid of Rosen, and Rosen has done a really good job of positioning himself as the prototypical Nevada senator,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada. Las Vegas.

Damore added that since Nevada was founded in 1864, only five of its sitting senators have lost re-election. Most have behaved like Rosen, positioning themselves as nonpartisan leaders who will deliver for the state.

“There is a history of long-standing, moderate senators who have dominated Nevada politics,” Damore said.

Rosen won in 2018 when the former senator who held that post, Republican Sen. Dean Heller, pivoted sharply to the right in response to Trump's attacks on failing to adequately support the then-president. The state's other senator, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, narrowly won re-election in 2022 with a similarly centrist, low-profile campaign against a Trump-backed candidate.

Trump supported Brown in the state's primary, but his political career predated Trump. Brown tried to run for a statehouse seat in Texas in 2014 before moving to Nevada in 2018 and unsuccessfully running in the 2022 Republican primary to challenge Cortez Masto.

Brown was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device during a Taliban attack on his unit in southern Afghanistan in 2008. After 30 surgeries and years of recovery, he left the Army in 2011 and started a business to help veterans receive medical care. Brown's face is still heavily scarred and is the focus of his campaign advertising.

“As a U.S. Senator, I will proudly stand with Donald Trump to make America affordable, safe and strong again,” Brown said at the Republican National Convention this summer.

Rosen has criticized Brown for his stance on abortion and said he would vote for a nationwide ban if it were sent to Washington, D.C

Abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy are protected in Nevada by a 1990 state law. This year, a measure to enshrine the right to abortion until it is feasible – i.e. after 21 weeks – will be voted on in the state constitution. If it passes, it must pass again in 2026.

Brown describes himself as “pro-life” and claims he never filled out a 2022 questionnaire that said he opposed exceptions for rape, incest and maternal health. Brown and his wife Amy met earlier this year for a joint interview with NBC News in which they discussed an abortion she had performed before the two met.

Meanwhile, Rosen launched her re-election campaign earlier this year with an ad in which she declared, “Six years ago, I promised to do what was right for Nevada, not for my party leaders.”

Republicans need to pick up two Senate seats to win a majority in the House, so every seat counts in this election. But the GOP is already well-positioned in West Virginia, where it has an open seat in a state that Trump won overwhelmingly has. The Republican Party is confident in its chances of ousting Democrats in two other red states, Montana and Ohio. So the party hasn't invested much in Nevada.

The Senate race isn't the only disappointing race in Nevada. The state has three Democratic-held House seats that could be competitive, but Republicans are significant underdogs in all of them.

“They did a terrible job recruiting,” Damore said of the state Republican Party, which has been taken over by hardliners who support Trump.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who has represented Nevada's 1st Congressional District for more than a decade, faces another challenge from retired Army Col. Mark Robertson. Titus defeated Robertson in 2022 by almost 6 percentage points. Her district is reliably blue and includes Las Vegas and parts of the suburbs of Henderson and Boulder City.

In the 3rd Congressional District, widely considered the state's most competitive, Democratic U.S. Rep. Susie Lee is trying to defend her seat against Drew Johnson, a conservative political analyst. The district includes much of Las Vegas' culturally diverse Spring Valley neighborhood, but also more rural areas in Clark County, the state's most populous.

Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, wants to keep his seat in Nevada's sprawling 4th Congressional District, which includes downtown Las Vegas and deep-red rural counties like Nye, Mineral and Esmeralda. He faces a challenge from former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who is now a Republican after switching parties and running an unsuccessful primary campaign for governor in 2022.