LAS VEGAS — Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, fresh from a narrow victory in a hard-fought race that determined control of the U.S. Senate, vowed to keep working for all Nevadans, regardless of whether they voted for her.
In a Sunday morning rally at the Carpenters International Training Center, Cortez Masto promised she would never forget her roots.
“Like all of you, I am a proud Nevadan,” she said. “Every single day I do not forget where I am from. And when I walk in that Capitol I take all of you with me.”
Cortez Masto, the first Latina to serve in the Senate and the handpicked successor to the late former Sen. Harry Reid, defeated Republican former Attorney General Adam Laxalt by about 6,500 ballots statewide, out of more than 1 million cast.
She vowed to keep fighting for Latinos, immigrants and workers, and to protect women’s right to have an abortion.
Cortez Masto said she was a deciding vote to protecting the Affordable Care Act, and is “ready for more tough fights like that.”
“When Republicans try to force through a federal abortion ban, I’m going to stop it,” Cortez Masto said.
Nevadans rejected the far-right and their attempts to divide the state, Cortez Masto said, and they rejected their conspiracy theories.
Cortez Masto also congratulated other Democrats down the ticket who won the election, including all of the Democratic incumbent House representatives, and the Democrats in the Nevada Legislature, who now have a supermajority.
She thanked her husband, Paul, her parents and her campaign staff for their support, and she thanked supporters who knocked on doors, saying that in a tight race, it made a difference.
Laxalt’s campaign has not responded to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s requests for comment, and he has not published a statement on his election loss as of Sunday morning. Although former President Donald Trump alluded to false theories of a stolen election, Laxalt so far has not suggested anything of the sort.
National political action committees and organizations from both parties poured millions into Nevada’s U.S. Senate race. With results from the battleground state of Georgia’s Senate race postponed because of a runoff in December, it was up to Nevada Democrats to deliver a majority for the party in the U.S. Senate.
Cortez Masto’s win maintained Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, and the Democrats could maintain a majority in the U.S. House as well.
Joining her at her victory speech were representatives from many Southern Nevada unions.
“I’m also standing with the people who make this state run — our workers,” Cortez Masto said.
Cortez Masto, whose father was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, construction workers, warehouse workers and others, relied on the support of unions throughout her campaign. The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 ran the largest political program in Nevada to “defend and deliver the Senate Democratic control,” the union said in a statement after Cortez Masto’s win.
Across the state, 450 Culinary Union canvassers knocked on more than 1 million doors and had over 175,000 conversations with voters.
“For now we celebrate and then continue to work,” Cortez Masto said.
———
