Carson City's Amodei retains seat in Congress, says 'It’s just a worrisome time'

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Wednesday to include comments from Ackerman.

Republican Mark Amodei easily claimed another two-year term representing Nevada’s District 2 in the House of Representatives.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s office show Amodei with 198,322 votes to just 142,974 for Democrat Patricia Ackerman.

His margin was just over 5,000 votes in Washoe County where the majority of District 2 voters live — 112,873 to 107,563. His margin was nearly that much in his hometown of Carson City at 15,484 to 10,824. District 2 includes 11 of Nevada’s 17 counties.

Ackerman was hoping for a blue wave to carry her over the top but it didn’t happen in Nevada where the race for president was still too close to call Wednesday morning.

No Democrat has ever won that district since its creation in the 1980s for Republican Barbara Vucanovich.

Amodei said he was very pleased with an almost 5,000-vote lead in Washoe, especially since President Trump was losing the county by nearly 10,000 votes.

“It was gratifying to see a multi-thousand vote advantage in Washoe,” he said pointing out Washoe is the only part of his district that is shaded blue.

But statewide, he said Trump is much closer to Biden than any pundits had predicted.

Amodei said for Trump to have cut the margin down that much, there have got to be some Democratic leaders , “taking a good hard look at what happened because this is a hell of a lot closer than we’re used to in Nevada.”

Going forward in Washington, D.C., he said he’s not sure what to expect.

“What’s got me worried is this: the popular vote in the country is really split,” he said. “If you’re really going to work on the issues based on the facts it’s like, I don’t know. It’s just a worrisome time.”

Amodei is part of the bipartisan working group that he said has, “turned out to be a pretty good conduit,” for getting some things done.

He expressed concern for the Fallon Naval Air Station expansion that he said won’t happen unless it gets included in the defense appropriations act.

Ackerman said her organization did, “incredibly well” in grass roots campaigning and raised more money than any other Democrat has in District 2.

“But when you’re talking a congressional race where you need a minimum of $1 million to get your message out, it’s extremely challenging,” she said.

She said the party has to actually get behind a candidate if they are ever going to win that district.

“Enough with the sacrificial lambs already.”

Ackerman said it was also eye opening how close the presidential race is in Nevada.

“I’m disturbed by people getting behind an individual like Trump,” she said describing him as “divisive and hate mongering.”

Amodei, she said, has been a Trump enabler.