Catherine Cortez Masto is an American politician and lawyer who has been the senior United States Senator from Nevada since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the 32nd attorney general of Nevada from 2007 to 2015.
CNN predicts that Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto will be re-elected, giving Democrats control of the Senate.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, is expected to win re-election in Nevada, according to CNN, delivering a significant victory that would enable Democrats to continue holding the majority in the US Senate. In a state where the economy had been badly hit by the Covid-19 outbreak and inflation, Cortez Masto successfully fended off a challenge from former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who had long been viewed as one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
The first Latina senator, Alexandria Cortez Masto, was elected, giving Democrats 50 seats and Republicans 49. Additionally, Democrats are running to retain a Senate seat in Georgia.
On December 6, Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, a Republican, will compete in a runoff election. The chamber will be equally split even if Republicans take that seat, enabling Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the decisive vote. In Pennsylvania, where Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman upset Trump-backed Mehmet Oz in the contest to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, Democrats were able to keep their majority.
Control of the US House is still up in the air and may not be determined for some time as votes are still being tabulated in closely fought elections in California and other states. Laxalt became a close supporter of Donald Trump after backing his attempts to have the Silver State’s 2020 presidential election results overturned.
The motivating cause behind this Senate election, however, was the state’s difficult economic circumstances, which featured one of the highest inflation rates in the nation and petrol prices that were still over $5 per gallon in October.
Nevada Politics
Cortez Masto was selected in 2016 to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, who had been a key figure in Nevada politics for decades. She bragged that during the COVID-19 epidemic, the convention, trade fair, entertainment, and hotel industries, which are essential to the state’s economy, received extensive relief and recovery funding.
Given that a sizable section of Nevada’s population travels around regularly, one of Cortez Masto’s main challenges was that many people were ignorant of her background. Laxalt and Republican ally organizations attempted to achieve this by equating the Democratic senator with President Joe Biden, whose favor ratings are low in a state that he barely won in 2020.
Some of the economic variables causing inflation include supply-chain issues, the pandemic’s consequences, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The GOP countered that many Nevadans are facing price shock at the petrol pump and the grocery store because of spending and relief measures backed by Democrats.
Cortez Masto focused on Democratic legislative proposals to reduce American prices, especially those for health care and prescription pharmaceuticals while seeking to tie her Republican opponent to “big oil.”
Trump’s Campaign Co-Chairs
Cortez Masto attempted to remind voters that Laxalt had previously served as one of Trump’s campaign co-chairs. Laxalt was charged with supporting an “extreme agenda” and conspiracies, which she alleged were responsible for the US Capitol being stormed on January 6, 2021.
Even though Nevada’s abortion laws currently protect abortions up to 24 weeks thanks to a 1990 voter initiative, she and other Democratic groups sought to argue that Laxalt would risk them. In an Op-Ed for the Reno Gazette-Journal, Laxalt argued against the proposal, saying that access to abortion was already protected by state law and that he would not support a federal ban on the procedure.
Early Life
Catherine Cortez Masto was born on March 29, 1964, in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. She is of Caucasian ethnicity and has an American nationality. Her astrological sign is Aries.
Catherine Cortez Masto is Joanna (née Musso) and Manny Cortez’s daughter. Her father, an attorney, was the long-time executive director of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and a member of the Clark County Commission.
Manny Cortez, who is now deceased, was long friends with Harry Reid. Her father is Mexican, and her mother is of Italian descent. Eduardo Cortez, her paternal grandfather, immigrated to Nevada from Chihuahua, Mexico.
Education
Cortez Masto graduated from Ed W. Clark High School in 1986 and obtained a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1990, as well as a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law.
Cortez Masto was admitted to the Nevada State Bar in 1990, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in 1991, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1994. Her experience includes four years as a civil attorney in Las Vegas and two years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. She was also the chief of staff to former Nevada Governor Bob Miller.
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Cortez Masto was appointed executive vice chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education in November 2003. There was some debate because she was hired directly by the chancellor rather than the university system’s board of regents; the chancellor stated that the regents had recommended that he hire an assistant, and the board unanimously approved her annual salary of $215,000.
Rivals
Cortez Masto announced her intention to seek reelection in 2022 on February 24. Adam Laxalt, the candidate for governor in 2018 and her successor as attorney general, is one of her rivals. Cortez Masto won the election against Laxalt on November 12, 2022, earning a second term. By the end of October 2022, Cortez Masto had voted 92.9% of the time in accordance with Joe Biden’s stated stance.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Gardner’s bipartisan STATES Act, which would exclude people or businesses who adhere to state cannabis laws from the federal enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, has Cortez Masto as a cosponsor.
Cortez Masto acknowledges the fact of climate change is driven by human activity and thinks that the federal government needs to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. She favors boosting the number of green employment and Nevada’s dependence on solar energy and other renewable energy sources. She is against Yucca Mountain being used as a depository for nuclear waste.
Personal Life
Paul Masto is a former US Secret Service agent, and his wife Catherine Cortez Masto resides in Las Vegas. The first Latina to serve as a senator for the United States, Cortez Masto won reelection in 2022. American politician Catherine Cortez Masto, formerly known as Catherine Marie Cortez, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 as a Democrat and started representing Nevada in that chamber the following year.
