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Kamala Harris spent only two years in the Senate before she launched her ill-fated run for president in 2019. That meant little time for forging strong relationships on Capitol Hill that many vice presidents enjoy.
But she did come to Washington at the same time as an old friend, Catherine Cortez Masto. And Cortez Masto, who inherited arguably one of the most efficient Democratic machines in the country, might just be Harris’s ace up her sleeve if she is to win the crucial swing state of Nevada and shore up support among Latino voters.
Harris and Cortez Masto actually knew each other long before they came to Washington, going back to the 2008 financial crisis that disproportionately slammed their states because of the subprime mortgage crisis and foreclosures. Harris and Cortez Masto — along with Delaware’s attorney general, Beau Biden — ultimately sued the big banks and wound up winning a $20 billion settlement.
“In general, I think she’s strong, smart and capable,” Cortez Masto told The Independent, when asked about Harris.
Cortez Masto replaced one of the most consequential Senate majority leaders, the late Harry Reid.
“We had her going for lieutenant governor, run for Congress, to run for governor, but she didn't want that,” Reid told me in an interview in 2021 before his death that year. “She wanted to be a Senator.”
When Reid retired, he essentially anointed her. His sprawling political operation — called “the Reid Machine” by both admirers and detractors alike — then delivered Nevada for Hillary Clinton, elected Cortez Masto and flipped the state legislature.
Harris and Cortez Masto also proved to be trailblazers: Harris became only the second Black woman and first Indian-American female Senator, while Cortez Masto remains the only Latina Senator elected in history.
The two proved to be one of the few bright spots for Democrats when Donald Trump won the White House. The two joined Senators Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire as part of a freshman class of female Senators.
“We campaigned together, everything — it was the four of us,” Duckworth told The Independent.
In 2020, Cortez Masto had the unenviable task of being Democratic Senatorial Committee Chairman with Biden at the top of the ticket. Though races like Iowa, Maine and North Carolina failed to go the Democrats’ way, they ultimately flipped the Senate thanks to victories in Colorado and Arizona as well as the runoff elections in Georgia.
But the Covid-19 pandemic slammed Nevada and its important gaming industry. Trump’s significant inroads and Biden’s lagging with Latino voters made Democrats sweat a state they’ve held since Obama won it by double digits.
In 2022, the state’s incumbent Democratic governor, Steve Sisolak, lost his race to Joe Lombardo, a Trump-backed candidate. But Cortez Masto’s heavy focus on defending abortion rights helped her pull off a miracle re-election campaign many thought she would lose.
In recent months, Biden’s poor performance made Democrats begin to fret Nevada. But polling has shown that Harris has stemmed the bleeding among Latino voters that was happening under Biden.
Cortez Masto said that Harris, a Californian, would not take Hispanic voters for granted. Harris “understands that you’ve got to be there, talk with them constantly and be involved in the issues that matter to them and she knows what those issues are,” she told The Independent.
Trump is making a major play for Nevada. On Tuesday, his running mate JD Vance paid a campaigning visit to Henderson, a sign that the former president sees the state as flippable.
Cortez Masto, for her part, says she has campaigned with Harris in the past and would do so in the future. Despite the efforts of Trump and Vance, the combined strengths of these two powerful women might be what the party needs to hold the state.
