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May 31st , 2023 Political Note #564 Jacky Rosen Nevada Senator
2024 General Election
Jacky Rosen may be the third most vulnerable Democratic Senator. Consider 2022. Nevada’s other US Senator was reelected 48.81 to 48.04. By 7,928 votes.
Most Nevada statewide races were close in 2022.
The incumbent Democratic governor Steve Sisolak lost to Republican Sheriff Joe Lombardo 48.8 – 47.3 – 15,386 votes
Secretary of State Democrat Franciso Aguilar won his race 48.9 – 46.7
Other Republican victories were close, but not squeakers.
For Lieutenant Governor (elected separate from the Governor) Republican Stavros Anthony defeated the Democrat 49.4 – 45.8. For Controller, Republican Andy Matthews defeated Democrat Ellen Spiegel 50.1 – 45.9
One Democratic victory was substantial.
Attorney General Democrat Aaron Ford won his race 52.3-44.4.
Nevada is no one party state. We can have a reasonable expectation of a close Senate race. And Jacky Rosen has a lot going for her.
Jacky Rosen’s parents, both of them children of immigrants, moved from Chicago to Henderson, Nevada after her father retired from running his auto dealership. When she completed her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, Jacky Rosen moved to Nevada, too, where she got a job working for the Summa Corporation. It was not a big paying job. She waitressed at Caesar’s Palace during the summer and she took courses at a community college now known as the College of Southern Nevada.
Even if she was not paid much; even if she did not love the job, Jacky Rosen may have learned a little bit while at Summa. It was the holding company for Howard Hughes’ investments. Originally made wealthy through movies and airplanes, Howard Hughes had died 1976, she went to work at Summa after graduating from Minnesota in 1979. The holding company owned a television station, firms in various fields with the Hughes name, seven hotels or resorts, most of which were also casinos, a mining company and an oil company.
At the community college, Jacky Rosen earned an Associates Degree in computing and information technology – not a bad field in 1985. She began a three year stint working for the Southwest Gas utility in 1990 and. then set up her own consulting firm relying on what she had learned. In 1993, she married radiologist Larry Rosen.
In 2016, Harry Reid, the leader of the US Senate Democrats and also a resident of Henderson, asked her to run for Congress. Was that entirely out of the blue? Why would one of the most powerful Democrats in the country turn to her?
She had political experience. Just not in politics. For thirty years, she had been volunteering at her synagogue, Ner Tamid. For twenty years, off and on, she had served on the synagogue’s board. She was President of the synagogue. Jacky Rosen’s experience may not have been conventional preparation for Congress, but it was politics. She listened to people. After she was elected to Congress, the importance of her skill as a listener became even more apparent. The 2018 the Nevada Independent story about her candidacy for her first term in the Senate described her as having been “[A] nice and normal human being, a good listener to her friends and fellow synagogue members.”
Jacky Rosen’s empathetic listening was crucial for her success in Congress. A member of Congress does not make much of an impact on legislation in his or her first term. Jacky Rosen made a different kind of impact. “She doles out parenting advice to members of Congress when they’re having trouble balancing their work and home lives.” She comes across to members of Congress as someone “who knows more about how to live a nice and normal life under abnormal conditions.”
The Nevada Independent imagined the Nevada political machine running through a long list of possible candidates for the US Senate before getting to the politically inexperienced Jacky Rosen. They claim Harry Reid thought her “a genial, inoffensive first-term congresswoman” who would be hard to attack.
Don’t think for a minute that Harry Reid knew nothing about what he was getting when he asked Jacky Rosen to run for Congress in 2016 and then when he asked her to run for the US Senate. She was, in a way, a perfect politician; a politician who did not seem to be one. She had political opinions. She would complain, for instance, about the Republicans — “they want to balance [the budget] on the backs of our parents and our grandparents.”
Jacky Rosen does not complain much. The newspaper followed her on a campaign trip. She visited an elderly couple, 60 years married, with the wife in home hospice. Walking back to the car after delivering their meal, she talked about her parents receiving Meals on Wheels during the last few years of their lives. She asked the reporter and herself “Who are we if we don’t take care of our children and our elderly? I don’t know why we’re even fighting about this issue.”
Jacky Rosen personalizes the issues on which Democrats run. And then she says to fellow Democrats: “our shared values and our shared commitment to social justice and social action and what’s good and right and kind … brought us here”. She has no laundry list of proposed policies. She has, instead, an emotional commitment to people that translates into relationships with her colleagues and support for finding solutions to important issues based on those values.
She promises to grow Nevada’s economy for the future. She emphasizes travel and tourism, clean energy, and STEM education. She would make health care more accessible and affordable, fight for reproductive rights, address Nevada’s doctor shortage, address political corruption in Washington, support veterans and members of the armed forces, and fix the current broken immigration system. Maybe that is a laundry list after all.
Put Jacky Rosen in a position to continue listening to Nevadans. We don’t know who her opponent will be in November, 2024. So far, the only announced candidate is extreme right wing Republican Jim Marchant. I keep lists of prospective candidates as well as those who have announced. My list of possibilities includes ten Republicans who might run. If Jacky Rosen gets the resources she needs, not one of them can defeat her. Help her out with the resources.
Senate candidates about whom I have already written. Read my notes again and help them out, too. Do not be pessimistic about the ability of Democrats to maintain control of the US Senate, which is now 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 1 erratic Independent.
Two Vulnerable Democratic Incumbents
Jon Tester, Montana is the most vulnerable Democrat of those who have announced. Some Montana Republicans attempted to change Montana’s election system – just for the US Senate and just for 2024, hoping to create a forced choice for Libertarians and those who prefer independent candidates. Montana Republicans think that the Libertarians and the independents allowed Jon Tester to be elected even though he did not have a majority of the vote. Len’s Political Note #550.
Sherrod Brown, Ohio is the second most vulnerable Democrat of those who have announced. He brings a blue-collar persona to a state that has recently been electing Republicans. We don’t know who his opponent will be; but we know that Sherrod Brown has only lost once running for office in Ohio. Help him win this time. Len’s Political Note #556
Three Democratic insurgents who can win.
Ruben Gallego, Arizona will be the Democratic nominee for the US Senate. Kyrsten Sinema, the now erratic Independent incumbent up for election, complicates matters but will not dominate the contest. A Republican nominee will make this a three-way race. Ruben Gallego can make this into a race pitting himself as a reasonable Democrat, against an erratic independent, and an extreme Republican. He wins that kind of contest. Help him tell his story and win in November. Len’s Political Note #544
Lucas Kunce, Missouri will be the Democratic nominee for the US Senate. He lost the nomination for US Senate in the Democratic primary to an heiress in 2022. Not unlike Sherrod Brown, he is a champion of blue collar workers from his state and an advocate for corporate accountability. After Colin Allred, he is the Democrats’ next best chance to flip a Republican Senate seat. Help him do that. Len’s Political Note #538
Colin Allred, Texas may have a primary opponent, a State Senator from Uvalde who is focused, understandably, on gun safety. Nevertheless, former Baylor and NFL football player with a law degree from Berkeley is a well-regarded member of Congress who grew up in and now represents Dallas. Making a case for himself as a moderate Democrat, he has a real chance to defeat Ted Cruz, the most disliked member of the Senate. Len’s Political Note #560
