Nevada Elections Update
Last night, Republicans maintained their majorities in both chambers of the U.S. Congress and Republican Donald Trump won the presidency.
As U.S. Sen. Harry Reid prepares for retirement, he pulled the lever on the Reid Machine one last time and Democrats came away victorious across the state. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated League Supported Dr. Joe Heck (R) to become the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate. Ruben Kihuen defeated Republican incumbent Cresent Hardy. He along with League Supported Jacky Rosen will join Dina Titus in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On the state side, Democrats did extremely well this cycle in Nevada, taking back both the state Senate and Assembly majorities (11‐10 in the Senate and 27‐15 in the Assembly). They have a constitutional majority in both houses, but are short of a supermajority (14 in the Senate or 28 in the Assembly). Of course, the key state executive offices – Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General – all remain Republican at this time, so that will temper things a bit.
The results are in line with our expectations, with no real surprises. In the Nevada State Senate, the biggest win for the Nevada Credit Union League is that Senator Joyce Woodhouse (D) defended her seat against Carrie Buck (R). Since Ruben Kihuen won his bid for U.S. Congress, there will be an appointment to fill his seat in SD10. Also of note, League Supported Julia Ratti (D) won in SD13 and League Supported Heidi Gansert (R) won in SD15.
In the Assembly, races we had been watching included: AD‐04 ‐ Richard McArthur (R) defeated John Piro (D) AD‐05 ‐ Brittney Miller (D) defeated Art Ham (R) AD‐08 – League Supported Jason Frierson (D) won and is a potential for the Speaker of the Assembly in 2017 AD‐09 – Steve Yeager (D) defeated League Supported incumbent David Gardner (R) AD‐21 – Ozzie Fumo (D) defeated League Supported incumbent Derek Armstrong (R) AD‐29 – Lesley Cohen (D) defeated incumbent Stephen Silberkraus (R) AD‐35 – Justin Watkins (D) defeated incumbent Brent Jones (R) AD‐37 – Jim Marchant (R) defeated League Supported Sean Lyttle (D) AD‐41 – Sandra Jauregui (D) defeated Nick Phillips (R)
Additionally, Statewide Ballot Question No. 2 passed with 54.47% of the vote legalizing recreational marijuana use.
In the next few weeks we will have a better idea for who will be the committee chairs and committee makeups before session starts on Monday, February 6, 2017.