Laxalt’s Nevada win sets up fierce race for Senate control

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Adam Laxalt, a former state lawyer normal who has embraced lies concerning the 2020 election, gained the Republican nomination for a pivotal Nevada Senate seat, keeping off a problem from a political newcomer and establishing what’s going to doubtless be a fierce and dear race in opposition to incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the endangered Democrats in an evenly divided Senate.

Laxalt loved the backing of the Republican Social gathering’s most influential figures, starting from former President Donald Trump to Senate GOP Chief Mitch McConnell and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. However a late-stage problem from political newcomer Sam Brown compelled Laxalt to spend closely within the last weeks of the first marketing campaign and faucet into the assist of a few of his high-profile backers, significantly these with ties to Trump.

The matchup in opposition to Cortez Masto comes at a tough second for Democrats, weighed down by President Joe Biden’s low approval scores and searching for to keep up management of Congress as folks all through the U.S. grapple with rising costs of on a regular basis items and gasoline. Republicans see the race as their finest alternative to flip a Senate seat and regain the bulk, however are additionally looking ahead to longer-term sign that Nevada is swinging again of their course after rejecting each GOP presidential candidate since 2004.

“Collectively we have now taken an vital step tonight,” Laxalt mentioned at an election evening get together in Reno, Nevada. “An vital step in taking our nation again, an vital step in taking our nice state of Nevada.”

Past the Senate race, Republicans in Nevada additionally picked Joe Lombardo as their nominee to problem incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in what might be one of the aggressive governor’s races this yr. And the GOP backed Jim Marchant as their candidate for secretary of state. A former state lawmaker, he has repeated false claims concerning the presidential marketing campaign and, if elected, can be accountable for elections in a state that might be crucial in figuring out the winner of the White Home in 2024.

Nevada was one among a number of states that held elections Tuesday, about halfway by a major season that might reshape American politics. The outcomes provided warnings for each events.

In south Texas, Democrats misplaced a long-held seat within the U.S. Home. They’re prone to regain it in November, however Tuesday’s outcomes had been a reminder that the get together’s standing is susceptible to slipping amongst Latinos.

Trump, in the meantime, helped a South Carolina state lawmaker take out five-term incumbent Rep. Tom Rice, who backed the previous president’s second impeachment final yr. Whereas the win might assist Trump regain momentum after setbacks in a sequence of races final month, it occurred in a rural, solidly Republican congressional district. One other incumbent that the previous president sought to defeat in a neighboring district, Rep. Nancy Mace, held again the challenger, attracting a number of the suburban moderates who bolted from the GOP through the Trump period.

Chatting with reporters after the outcomes got here in, Mace sought to strike a tone of consensus, pledging to “work with anybody who’s prepared to work with me, full cease.”

For his half, Trump posted an announcement on his social media platform saying Mace’s challenger, Katie Arrington, was a “lengthy shot” who ran a “nice race.” He provided his congratulations to Mace, who he mentioned ought to simply prevail over a Democrat within the fall.

Nonetheless, a lot of the eye Tuesday was on Nevada.

Laxalt entered the first with robust identify recognition after serving for 4 years as Nevada’s lawyer normal. The grandson of former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, he campaigned unsuccessfully for governor in 2018.

However maybe most significantly in GOP circles, he’s bought ties to Trump. Laxalt labored on Trump’s reelection marketing campaign and promoted his lies about election fraud within the state after the 2020 election, together with spearheading authorized challenges to the vote-counting course of. Trump in flip hosted Laxalt for a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seashore, Florida, and appeared in a marketing campaign advert for Laxalt.

Trump’s false claims of fraud within the 2020 election had been laced all through the marketing campaign. Final fall, Laxalt started elevating fears of voter fraud in 2022 and talked about preemptively mounting authorized challenges “to attempt to tighten up the election.”

Laxalt had insisted in 2020 that ineligible and lifeless voters forged ballots within the presidential election in Nevada, regardless of the state’s Republican secretary of state insisting that the outcomes displaying Biden’s victory had been correct and dependable.

Brown, to the shock of many within the state, gained the endorsement of the Nevada Republican Social gathering at a conference vote in late April and a straw ballot of the Las Vegas-area GOP at a Might gathering. Latest polls confirmed him closing in on Laxalt, although the state, with a transient inhabitants and plenty of late-shift employees because of the state’s tourism and on line casino business, is taken into account fickle for pollsters.

Laxalt is now centered on attempting to defeat Cortez Masto, the primary Latina elected to the Senate and successor of the late Sen. Harry Reid. She is making her first reelection bid as Democrats broadly are going through headwinds this yr, significantly with regards to the financial system. In Nevada, excessive costs for fuel are acutely felt by residents of Las Vegas’ sprawling suburbs or these commuting from far-flung rural areas.

Those self same elements might imperil the reelection of Nevada’s Democratic governor, Sisolak. He’ll face Lombardo, the sheriff of Clark County, who additionally earned a coveted endorsement from Trump.

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Worth reported from Washington. Related Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Meg Kinnard in Charleston, South Carolina and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.

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Observe AP for full protection of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.