Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen will win reelection in Nevada, CNN projects, holding off Republicans from adding to their incoming majority in the US Senate.
Rosen, a former synagogue president who was first elected in 2018, is projected to narrowly defeat Army veteran Sam Brown. The Republican’s campaign had appeared to struggle to gain traction in this battleground state, but in the end, he kept the race close.
With Donald Trump projected to win Nevada, Rosen becomes one of several Democrats who were able to win Senate seats this year while the president-elect was carrying their states.
Democrats focused much of their attacks on Brown over abortion rights – with Rosen attacking him on the issue even before he emerged from a June primary. While Brown had said he would not support a federal abortion ban and backs exceptions for victims of rape or incest, he once backed a 20-week ban in Texas, which would not have made exceptions for rape or incest, when running for a Texas legislative seat a decade ago.
His wife, Amy Brown, spoke out during the campaign about having an abortion before she met her husband and how that experience shaped their views on the issue.
Rosen, for her part, campaigned on being a staunch supporter of abortion rights. Nevada, where abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, was one of several states that voted this year on ballot initiatives to enshrine reproductive rights in their state constitutions. CNN projected that Silver State voters will approve a measure that would establish the fundamental right to an abortion up to the point of fetal viability in the state’s constitution.
Brown, who moved to Nevada from Texas in 2018, first ran for Senate in 2022. He lost the Republican nomination to former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who then narrowly lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto. This year, Brown leaned heavily into his endorsement from Trump, using the former president’s praise of him and criticism of Rosen in ads.
In both of his Senate runs, Brown faced accusations of being a carpetbagger.
In one case, Brown landed on the wrong side of one of the most politically toxic issues in the state: stalled plans to send nuclear waste to a federal repository at the state’s Yucca Mountain. Brown was forced to backtrack on his support for opening the facility after his remarks were reported.