Nevada Senate Race: The Reid Machine’s Last Stand

The 2016 U.S. Senate race between Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Joe Heck was a proxy war between groups and interests on the left and right that generated over $120 million in campaign spending. However, Cortez Masto’s narrow victory resulted from her overwhelming support in the Latino heavy precincts of East Las Vegas that had been canvassed relentlessly by “The Reid Machine”–the coalition of progressive interest groups, organized labor, and the Nevada Democratic Party that had been created and sustained by the retiring U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. In an otherwise disappointing election cycle for the Democrats, Nevada was perhaps the lone bright spot as Democrats were victorious up and down the ticket in the Silver State.