Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has become a key confidant for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, though she brushed aside claims that she is being eyed for a cabinet position should Harris wins in November.
Axios reported last week that Democratic strategists have floated some names for top cabinet positions under a Harris administration, including Cortez Masto as attorney general.
Cortez Masto told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a Thursday interview that those are rumors, and she is “more than happy” with what she is doing now representing Nevada. When asked if she would consider taking on the role if Harris asked her to, Cortez Masto answered by saying her focus is on Nevada.
“This is what I was re-elected to do,” she said. “I am 100 percent into working on behalf of Nevada, finding solutions for the families and businesses here, and making sure we’re doing everything we can to support working families and businesses.”
Nevada’s senior senator might have come up as an possible hire due to her close relationship with Harris. They got to know each other when they both served as attorneys general in the neighboring states of Nevada and California.
They worked together on issues their states had in common, such as the banking crisis as well as transnational crime that was coming across the southern border, Cortez Masto said.
“It was just over the course of being attorneys general, we bonded and built a friendship as well,” Cortez Masto said.
Since Harris has stepped up as the Democratic presidential nominee in July, the Nevada senator has taken on a role as an adviser to Harris’ campaign, serving on a vetting team to pick Harris’ vice presidential running mate.
“She knows she can trust me,” Cortez Masto said. “I’m always candid with her.”
She said she comes from a swing state and understands the issues Nevadans care about, which she said is important to the Harris campaign. She also made it through a tough re-election bid in 2022, securing her victory by less than one percentage point.
Leaving her position as one of Nevada’s senators could leave the Democrats’ control of the Senate vulnerable, as her narrow 2022 victory maintained the Democrats’ lead in the Senate. Her replacement would be appointed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo until a general election is held, according to Congressional Research Service.
Cortez Masto said if a presidential candidate comes to Nevada and talks to voters, understands the issues and focuses on solutions, then “you’re going to be pretty much successful anywhere else because we’re such a diverse state, and we really are a microcosm of the rest of the country.”
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
click to expand photos
Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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