Cortez Masto after Senate win: ‘Nevadans rejected the far-right politicians working to divide us’

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) told supporters on Sunday that “Nevadans rejected the far-right politicians working to divide us” after winning her reelection bid against Republican Adam Laxalt and cementing Democrats’ majority in the Senate a second time.

Cortez Masto won the Nevada Senate race against Laxalt on Saturday, becoming the last senator needed to win their election in order for Democrats to definitively control the Senate in the next legislative session. 

“So when far-right Republicans said they knew better, I knew we’d prove them wrong … today we did. The victory is for Nevada and all of us,” Cortez Masto said at the Carpenters International Training Center in Las Vegas.

“This election Nevadans rejected the far-right politicians working to divide us. We rejected their conspiracies, their attacks on our workers and their efforts to restrict our freedoms.”

Cortez Masto also used her speech to remind Nevadans of her credentials as a former state attorney general and the country’s first Latina elected to the Senate six years ago, and she sought to parallel her family’s story in the Silver State to those of other Latino families.

“As you all know, I don’t forget where I come from. I have a grandfather who came from Chihuahua, Mexico. Grandmother from Las Cruces, New Mexico, and they worked hard — they worked hard, and my parents worked hard in this community growing up here to support our family. It is the story of so many Latino families across our state. It’s a story of so many Latino families across the country,” the senator said.

“I know my family, not only those that are here today, but those that have passed, would be so proud to see me serving as the first Latina in the U.S. Senate,” she continued to applause.

Cortez Masto’s remarks come as Democrats now head into the Georgia Senate runoff next month with an opportunity to expand their majority in the upper chamber as Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) faces off against Republican Herschel Walker. 

Many Republicans, including a number of former President Trump’s nominees, this cycle struggled in their general election races, including in key states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. The Silver State suffered similarly, seeing some controversial Republican candidates run for top offices such as Jim Marchant, an election denier who lost his race to be the state’s top elections official.

Republicans still have an opportunity to flip the House, though it would be by a much slimmer margin than many in the GOP had hoped for.