Cortez Masto draws closer to Laxalt in Nevada Senate race

The Nevada Senate race has continued to tighten in the days since the Nov. 8 election, with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) narrowing Republican Adam Laxalt’s lead late Thursday night.

At the time of writing, the incumbent senator trails Laxalt by just under 9,000 votes, giving him just a 1-point lead over her at 49 percent to 48 percent with 10 percent of votes in the state that still need to be counted. The counties with the highest number of votes still outstanding are Republican-heavy Lincoln County and Democratic-leaning Washoe County.

Democrats were concerned going into the midterms that a favorable political climate for Republicans, as well as the role that inflation has had on the economy in tourism-heavy Las Vegas, would hurt Cortez Masto in the race. Though the election is still too close to call, the senator is now within serious striking distance of Laxalt, raising Democratic hopes that she could still squeeze out a win.

Laxalt, a former state attorney who lost his 2018 GOP gubernatorial race to Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), had been shown leading Cortez Masto in a number of polls leading up to the midterms. Still, many on both sides of the aisle predicted the Nevada race would go down to the wire.

Election officials in the state have said it may take several days to call the race — possibly into sometime next week — given the fact that ballots postmarked by the day of the election can be received through Saturday.