In a presidential swing state where elections are typically intense contests, Nevada's US Senate race has been unusually sleepy.
The campaign pits Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen - a former computer programmer and synagogue president - against Republican Sam Brown, a retired Army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan. Both parties agree the state is in the midst of a tight race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, but that the senate race has drawn little notice, though Rosen has emerged as the favourite.
The first-term Rosen has outspent Brown by more than 3-1 in the contest, positioning herself as a nonideological senator who delivers for her home state on issues like broadband internet access and a high-speed rail connection with Southern California. Brown, who was awarded the Purple Heart, has campaigned on his biography and the state's cost-of-living crisis, particularly acute in working-class Nevada. He's had trouble gaining traction, though a last-minute infusion of GOP money in late October came as Republicans, cheered by strong turnout for their party in early voting, hoped Brown could upend expectations in the race.
"He hasn't really articulated a case for why we should get rid of Rosen, and Rosen has done a really good job of positioning herself as the prototypical Nevada Senator,” said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Damore added that since Nevada became a state in 1864, only five of its incumbent senators have lost bids for reelection. Most have behaved like Rosen, positioning themselves as nonpartisan leaders who deliver for the state.
"There's a history of longstanding, moderate senators who have dominated Nevada politics,” Damore said.
Rosen won in 2018 when the prior senator who'd occupied that role, Republican Sen. Dean Heller, veered sharply to the right in response to attacks from Trump for not supporting the then-president adequately. The state's other senator, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, narrowly won reelection in 2022 with a similarly centrist, low-profile campaign against a Trump-backed candidate.