Jim Hartman
President-elect Donald Trump is the declared winner in Nevada by 3.1% over Vice President Kamala Harris, winning all 15 rural counties, losing Clark County and narrowly losing Washoe County (by 0.7%).
Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Nevada since President George W. Bush won the Silver State in 2004.
Trump’s Nevada 2024 triumph came after his losing the state to President Joe Biden in 2020 by a 2.4% margin and losing Nevada in 2016 to Hillary Clinton by an identical 2.4%.
Nationwide, Trump was a landslide winner in the Electoral College defeating Harris (312-226), carrying all seven “battleground” states.
Trump is the first Republican since Bush in 2004 to win the national popular vote. He leads Harris by 3.1 million votes after losing the popular vote to Biden by 7 million votes in 2020.
In Nevada’s U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen fended off a surprisingly strong challenge from underdog Republican Sam Brown (47.9%-46.3%). Brown rode Trump’s coattails to a near major upset.
Nationally, Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate. The GOP gained four Senate seats (West Virginia, Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania). Republicans will now hold a 53-seat majority.
In Nevada’s House races, all four incumbents won.
Longtime Clark County Democrat incumbent Dina Titus (District 1) won re-election by 7.5% and Democrat Steven Horsford was an 8% winner in Southern Nevada (District 4).
In a close race, Clark County Democrat Susie Lee (District 3) beat GOP challenger Drew Johnson by 3%.
Nevada’s sole congressional Republican, Rep. Mark Amodei (District 2), was easily re-elected by 20% over his self-funding, nonpartisan opponent, Greg Kidd, who spent $4 million on advertising.
Nationally, Republicans are expected to have a very thin House majority. Currently, the GOP has a 219 to 210 seat lead.
With Trump’s “red wave,” Nevada Republicans had hopes of making gains in the Legislature to support Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Lombardo recruited electable legislative candidates, hoping to gain three to five seats in the Assembly.
Democrats have maintained control of both houses of the Legislature since 2017, fueled by their “Reid Machine” political organization.
But more importantly, in a November 2020 special legislative session, Democrats used gerrymandering to establish a huge unfair structural political advantage over Republicans.
Democrats made up 34 percent of Nevada voters, but they railroaded through redistricting maps that guarantee them 70 percent of congressional and state legislative seats.
Going into this election, Democrats had a 28-14 supermajority in the Assembly and a 13-8 advantage in the Senate, one vote short of a supermajority.
In the election, Republicans gained a single seat in the Assembly. Now, with 15 GOP members, Democrats have lost their Assembly supermajority.
The Senate remains 13 Democrats and 8 Republicans. Retiring Senate GOP leader Heidi Gansert’s gerrymandered Reno district went Democratic, while Republican Lori Rogich defeated an incumbent Democrat in Las Vegas.
It’s a modest win for Lombardo, with Democrats unable to override his vetoes. In 2023, he set a record for the most vetoes issued in a single legislative session, rejecting 75 of the 611 bills passed by the Legislature.
Nevada voters rejected Question 3 (53% to 47%) proposing a California-style “jungle primary” and an untested “top five” ranked-choice voting system be locked into the Nevada Constitution.
It was opposed by Nevada’s top Democrats and Republicans, who argued it was confusing for voters and would result in election chaos. The measure’s defeat came after it passed with 53% approval in 2022.
Question 3, as a constitutional amendment, needed to pass in two consecutive elections to take effect.
Voters in Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon also rejected ranked-choice proposals, and a ranked-choice repeal measure leads in Alaska.
Constitutional amendments, Question 6 (abortion rights) and Question 7 (requiring voter ID) passed with 64.3% and 73.3% approval. Both require another vote in 2026 before becoming law.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.