Adam Laxalt, the Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada, said on Saturday that his “victory window” has narrowed as recent ballot releases have continued to break in favor of incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D).
Laxalt is leading by just over 850 votes as of Saturday morning, after initially taking an assertive lead over Cortez Masto in Tuesday’s midterm elections. On Friday night, the vote difference briefly dropped below 800 ballots.
“Here is where we are — we are up only 862 votes,” Laxalt said in a tweet on Saturday morning. “Multiple days in a row, the mostly mail in ballots counted continue to break in higher DEM margins than we calculated. This has narrowed our victory window.”
The Republican candidate said he believes the close Senate race will likely come down to about 20,000 to 30,000 early ballots that were dropped off in Clark County on Election Day. Nevada allows voters to hand in their absentee ballots in person on Election Day.
“If they are GOP precincts or slightly DEM leaning then we can still win,” Laxalt added. “If they continue to trend heavy DEM then she will overtake us.”
The Nevada race will be key in determining control of the Senate, especially after the Arizona Senate race was called for Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly on Friday night. If Democrats win Nevada, they will maintain their narrow majority in the upper chamber with Vice President Harris’s tiebreaking vote and have a chance to expand it in Georgia, where Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker will compete in a runoff election in December.
However, if Republicans win the Silver State, control of the Senate will once again come down to Georgia.