: How Catherine Cortez Masto clinched the Nevada seat — and the Senate #IndiaNEWS #International SPARKS, Nev. – In a backyard on a sunny afternoon in late October, a smattering of former office

How Catherine Cortez Masto clinched the Nevada seat — and the Senate #IndiaNEWS #International
SPARKS, Nev. – In a backyard on a sunny afternoon in late October, a smattering of former office holders, donors and prominent Nevada families surrounded Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and offered their endorsement.
The significance? They were all Republicans from the swing area of Washoe County and some supported abortion rights, just like the senator who lost the county in 2016. But she couldnt lose it again if she were to defeat her GOP opponent, Adam Laxalt, in what became one of the closest races in the nation.
The campaigns internal data moving into the fall showed that a significant number of Nevadans still did not know what Laxalts stance was on abortion, according to an adviser to Cortez Masto. That underscored a vulnerability on an issue the senator was certain would motivate the electorate.
As ballots came in, the incumbent took the lead late last week in Washoe over Laxalt, who had called the 2020 presidential election rigged and repeatedly vowed not to work with the other side of the aisle. Cortez Masto took a tack opposite to Laxalt, touting her work with Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, for instance, in what was one of a slew of strategic decisions, described by a campaign adviser, that led to her historic victory.
When the race was called late Saturday, it was the win heard around the nation. Cortez Masto clinched Nevada and that clinched control of the Senate for Democrats, overcoming historical trends that punish the party in the White House.
When all the national pundits said I couldn’t win, I knew Nevada would prove them wrong, she said in a Sunday victory speech. Because in Nevada, no one gets left behind — and that means standing up for our families when no one else will.

As of Sunday late afternoon, Laxalt had not publicly addressed the races outcome.
Cortez Mastos shoring up of Washoe was critical to her win but it was just once piece of a strategy that flew in the face of critics who said talking about abortion and the Big Lie were not winning messages. Her campaign had leaned into both of those themes, accelerating messaging on democracy in the final weeks of the campaign.
Gas and inflation should have spelled disaster for Cortez Masto as it did for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat who lost reelection after taking the brunt of punishment from voters for shuttering businesses during the pandemic. But Cortez Masto attempted to inoculate herself by steering clear of President Joe Biden and tying Laxalt to big oil, which she blamed for high gas prices, at the start of the general election.
Cortez Masto, the first Latina ever elected and now reelected to the Senate, ran ads touting ties to law enforcement to push back on a GOP crime narrative and worked her connections with the Latino community that ultimately helped lift her to victory — even as the national narrative predicted that the demographic would trend toward the GOP.