Rosen returns for second Senate term, beats Brown by a sliver in Silver State

Bucking a statewide shift to the right, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) will return to Congress for another six years after narrowly edging out her Republican opponent, the Associated Press said Sunday.

Rosen beat Brown, a Trump supporter and wounded Army Captain with a medical discharge who has never held elected office, by fewer than 2 percentage points, according to the Associated Press. Rosen got 47.9% of the vote and Brown got 46.3. About 5% of the ballots cast in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race went to other candidates.

Rosen squeaked by with a much narrower margin than polls predicted even days before the election. Some late-in-the-race polls showed Rosen with an advantage of five percent or more, according to the website 538, which aggregates polling data ahead of U.S. elections.

Nevada’s Democratic establishment pounced on Brown early in the race for what they viewed as soft position on Yucca Mountain, the site of a congressionally authorized permanent repository for nuclear waste that practically all Nevada politicians oppose unequivocally.

Brown, like Trump, once supported Yucca Mountain. The Los Angeles Times, citing an audio recording from 2022, reported earlier this year that Brown saw opportunities for Nevada to make money from disposal of high-level radioactive waste at Yucca.

Rosen’s victory will give Democrats 46 seats in the Senate, with one race, in Arizona, still undecided, according to the Associated Press’ count of returns. In the undecided race, Rep. Ruben Gallego led the Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake 50% to 47.8%, with 92% of the votes counted.

Republicans have already flipped three U.S. Senate seats and will control the chamber with at least 53 votes. Trump won Nevada with more than 50% of the vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris netting 47.5%.