Race for Nevada US Senate seat called for Jacky Rosen by multiple outlets

Following the newest results tabulated Thursday morning, the race between Nevada Democratic incumbent US Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown was called by a number of outlets, but not the Associated Press. 

New election results posted Thursday morning showed Nevada Democratic incumbent US Sen. Jacky Rosen leading over Republican challenger Sam Brown in her bid for re-election. 

The race was called early Thursday by Decision Desk HQ, The Nevada Independent, and others, but the race was still too-close-to-call by the Associated Press. Unofficial results as of Thursday morning showed Rosen with a lead of 12,699 votes with more than 95% of the vote counted. 

The Nevada Independent explained in its call that Nye County, a Republican stronghold, is still expected to post the results of about 10,000 mail ballots. That would improve Brown’s margin, but is unlikely to be enough to negate more than 30,000 mail ballots from Washoe County and thousands more from Clark County — areas that Rosen thus far has been winning by significant margins.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Brown’s campaign said it was waiting to see full results come in.

“There are still tens of thousands of uncounted ballots in the race for U.S. Senate and the candidates are separated by less than 1 percent,” Brown said. “There are also thousands of ballots which need to be cured. Sam Brown is committed to ensuring every legally cast, valid vote is counted.”

Brown in the latter half of his statement was referring to the more than 14,000 mail-in ballots as of Thursday morning still in need of a signature cure. Ballots submitted by mail are required by law to contain the signature of the voter to allow elections officials to verify that signature with the one kept on-file to authenticate the identification of that voter. Ballots can be cured until 5 p.m. Tuesday, and more information on ballot curing can be found here.

Brown has received roughly 66,500 fewer votes than Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who on Wednesday became the first in his party to carry the Silver State since former President George Bush in 2004. Approximately 39,000 Nevadans have voted for “None of these candidates” in the race between Brown and Rosen. 

If the call for Rosen holds, her win will mark a sigh of relief for Democrats, and would snap a streak of Republican pickups that ultimately will allow conservatives retake control of the Senate for the first time since 2020. Republicans already flipped three seats and appear to have a 53-47 advantage in Congress’ upper chamber come January. It’s not yet clear which party will hold a majority in the US House. 

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Rosen was first elected to the Senate in 2018 after first serving one term representing Nevada’s Third Congressional District in the House. Rosen in that race unseated incumbent Republican Dean Heller by roughly 50,000 votes, or about five percentage points. 

Thursday’s news also appears to have marked the third loss for elected office in three attempts for Brown, a Reno businessman and retired US Army Captain who survived severe burns after a roadside explosion while serving in Afghanistan.

Despite earning endorsements from Donald Trump and other Republican notables, Brown’s campaign was unable to overcome outcry from Rosen’s camp over his anti-abortion stance and claims he would work to pass a nationwide abortion ban.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.