Sen. Jacky Rosen emphasizes bipartisan credentials as the GOP looks to flip her seat

When Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) launched her re-election campaign in April 2023, she sought to emphasize her bipartisan credentials in the video announcement.

“I know what Nevada families are going through,” Rosen said. ‘That’s why I first ran for Congress. And that’s why I’ve worked with both parties in the Senate to solve problems. And always focused on making a difference in people’s lives.”

It’s clear why Rosen, 66, places so much emphasis on independent voters. It worked well in her burgeoning mid-life political career, which she continued after a stint as a computer programmer and, among other things, volunteering as president of the Congregation Ner Tamid synagogue, a Reform Jewish congregation in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson Vegas. . Rosen won a House seat in 2016 and moved to the Senate after a single two-year term in the 2018 elections by defeating a Republican incumbent.

And Nevada has a famously independent and difficult-to-determine electorate because of its frequent population turnover. Large numbers of people are moving to the Las Vegas region between elections in search of lower housing costs, jobs and desert sun, among other things. Some remain in what is still an often up-and-down economy based on the service sector, but large numbers of others are leaving, forcing candidates every election cycle, from statewide to local office, to scramble to identify likely voters and convince.

A near top Republican target

Senate Republicans see the Nevada seat as a key opportunity in their quest to overturn Democrats’ 51-49 majority. Senate Republicans already effectively control one state, West Virginia, where Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) is retiring and will almost certainly be replaced by a Republican in a state that turned out to be former President Donald Trump’s second state to be. best result in 2020, when he defeated President Joe Biden there by 69% to 30%.

The two main Republican targets are Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT). If we were to reject them and claim West Virginia, that would give us a healthy 52-48 majority. That’s where the Nevada seat comes in, with Senate Republicans seeing an opportunity in a state that is hotly contested at the presidential level. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Nevada by just 50.05% to 47.67%. It’s a similar situation in Pennsylvania, where Republicans are optimistic about candidate David McCormick’s chances of defeating Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), in a sort of undercard race to the fierce presidential battle being waged in the Keystone State.

That explains why Rosen has not always voted in line with her more liberal colleagues in the Democratic Senate. In May 2023, she was among a small group of Senate Democrats who joined Republicans in passing a resolution, 56-43, to reject a Council of the District of Columbia measure aimed at accountability police, to undo. It would have banned the use of chokeholds, required officers to use de-escalation tactics before using force, and allowed the public to access body camera footage. Republicans had seized on the bill as a sign that Democrats are “soft on crime” and not doing enough in this area.

Rosen was also among a group of Senate Democrats who called on the Biden administration to freeze $6 billion in assets for Iran following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Rosen leaves little to chance in her re-election. Her campaign recently placed a $14 million ad reservation in Nevada. It runs from late July through the November elections in the Las Vegas and Reno markets.

However, Senate Republicans scoff at these moves, arguing that the eventual Republican Party nominee, either retired Army Captain Sam Brown or wealthy dermatologist and Trump administration US Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter, is in a is in a strong position to beat Rosen.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of the chamber’s Republican lawmakers, is actively linking Rosen to Biden, whose mediocre approval ratings leave him in a near-deadly heat with his vanquished 2020 Republican rival just under six months after this year’s election . .

“Jacky Rosen is polling in the low 40s because she has done absolutely nothing to differentiate herself from the national Democratic brand,” said Mike Berg, communications director for the NRSC.

“Voters know nothing about her other than that she is a rubber stamp for whatever Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer want,” Berg added, referring to the Democratic Senate leader from New York, a popular Republican political punching bag.

In the June 11 Republican primary, Brown is the most prominent candidate. He was courted by NRSC Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) to run for the seat. Brown, a 2006 West Point graduate who later earned a master’s degree from Southern Methodist University, is an Afghanistan war veteran who suffered burns to 30% of his body in 2008 from an improvised explosive device.

A recent Emerson CollegeHill Polls showed Brown would have some ground to make up ground against Rosen as the Republican Senate candidate, with the incumbent ahead 45% to 37%.

Still, Brown is looking forward to the general election, questioning Rosen’s bipartisan credentials in a statement to the election Washington Examiner.

“Jacky Rosen has defended 98% of Joe Biden’s disastrous policies that put Washington’s wants over the needs of Nevadans,” Brown said. “As a result, housing, grocery and energy prices have spiraled out of control; our border is a war zone where crime and fentanyl flood our streets; and the education system excludes parental involvement while failing our children.”

Gunter, meanwhile, has the opportunity to finance a campaign against Rosen himself – if he can get that far. He and Brown are among 12 Republican candidates seeking the nomination, a field that also includes former Assemblyman Jim Marchant, a 2020 election denier and the 2022 GOP candidate for secretary of state.

Gunter has tried to tie Brown to retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and claim the title of MAGA Republican in the primaries.

“Dr. Jeff Gunter is the ultimate MAGA candidate, committed to President Trump’s transformative policies and prepared to invest substantially to secure victory in Nevada,” Gunter spokeswoman Erica Knight said in a statement to the U.S. presidential campaign. Washington Examiner. “With robust grassroots support demonstrated at the recent GOP convention in Nevada, Dr. Gunter is uniquely positioned to unseat Senator Jacky Rosen and defend conservative values ​​in the Senate.”

Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race, most likely because of his ties to Gunter and the NRSC’s endorsement of Brown.

Rosen is supportive at home

As the race comes into focus in the fall, Rosen’s campaign continues to emphasize what it calls its ability to work on behalf of its constituents across the aisle.

“Jacky Rosen has been ranked as one of the most bipartisan and effective senators in the country because of her proven record of political independence and her work across party lines to deliver results for Nevada,” said Rosen spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw . “While extreme MAGA Republicans are busy taking each other down in a divisive and expensive primary, Senator Rosen is focused on communicating directly with voters about the work she is doing to fight for Nevadans.”

Vince Saavedra, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Unions, also praised Rosen’s bipartisanship in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

“She is not an extremist, which we like,” Saavedra said. “Whether it’s the far left or the far right, she can easily work across the aisle, which is why she has support from the construction industry.”

Rosen voted with Biden almost 93% of the time during the 117^e Congress, according to analysis by FiveThirtyEight. During the 118th Congress, she voted with the president almost 99% of the time.

In 2023, Rosen was the third-place Democratic senator who she said broke ranks with her party. CQ roll call and Georgetown’s Lugar Center named her one of the top 10 bipartisan lawmakers in the Senate in 2022.

The Trump campaign and the Republican Party are trying to focus the 2024 race on inflation, which is raising the cost of groceries and gasoline, and on a growing immigration crisis at the southern border.

In Nevada, the consumer price index for all urban consumers was 3.45% in April, up from 3.1% the month before, but down from 6.5% a year earlier. “Core” CPI inflation was 3.9% in April, 4.0% the month before, and down from 5.7% a year earlier.

Unlike the Republican Party, Rosen and the Biden campaign are trying to turn the election focus on abortion, which has proven to be a key turnout issue for Democrats.

Organizers in Nevada are working to get an amendment on the ballot that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group leading the initiative, said it had collected 110,000 signatures in April, more than the 102,362 needed for the ballot.

“I think it will have a big impact because this is a family issue,” said Susie Martinez, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO.

“It’s ridiculous that your politician has anything to do with you and your doctor,” Martinez continued. “These extremes have just gotten out of hand, and that’s why every time something comes up (abortion), it’s a losing battle for the Republicans, because women won’t tolerate that, they come out and vote for it. .”

Brown and his wife Amy spoke to NBC News in February about the abortion she had before they married, with Brown embracing Nevada’s law allowing abortion up to 24 weeks and supporting individual states in setting abortion standards.

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However, the NRSC is confident that both Trump and Brown can win back the Silver State from the Democrats.

“Polls in Nevada consistently show President Trump leading Joe Biden in Nevada, and Sam Brown is already neck-and-neck with Jacky Rosen despite having less name recognition,” Berg said. “That’s the reason Cook political report recently shifted the race from ‘Lean Democrat’ to ‘Toss-Up.’”