One week of early voting has come and gone, and Election Day is a little over a week away. Though candidates have been hard at work for months on the campaign trail, many are making their first and last pitches to voters who have just tuned in to the election. The presidential nominees have been elsewhere in the country, though Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence was in Reno Wednesday, and the U.S. Senate candidates have been busy up and down the state securing final votes. For a download of what happened this week with Nevada races, read on.
Battle born battleground: Democrats have the edge in early voting
And we’re off! With the first week of early voting done, Democrats hold a substantial lead over Republicans when it comes to showing up, though they typically do during the early vote period, which lasts until Nov. 4. In Clark County, Democrats comprised 49 percent of voters in the first six days while another 31 percent were Republican. Statewide, Republicans fared slightly better, making up 35 percent of voters compared to the Democrats’ 45 percent. Other voters were from other parties or nonpartisans. All of that bodes well for Democrats, who only make up 39 percent of voters statewide. Here are the tallies of in-person early voting, Oct. 22-27:
• Statewide: 131,076 Democrats, 101,935 Republicans, 55,998 other (289,008 total)
• Clark County: 98,050 Democrats, 62,934 Republicans, 39,814 other (200,797 total)
This week in fact-checks
Half-true: That’s the rating PolitiFact gave Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto’s claim that her opponent, Republican Joe Heck, voted to “shut down the government.” Fact-checkers found that while Heck voted for several pieces of legislation that would have funded the government, they had no possibility of passing due to political realities at the time. However, Heck ultimately joined Democrats in voting for the final spending bill that ended the government shutdown, splitting with his party.
Campaign spending so far
The bills continue to rack up in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race and those for two contested congressional seats. Almost $87 million has been spent on the battle for the Senate so far, while another $29 million has been pumped into the contests for Nevada’s 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts. Here’s a look at where spending was as of Sept. 30 (for candidates) and Oct. 26 (for outside spending) in the Senate race, including some of the top outside spenders:
• Catherine Cortez Masto: $14,045,543 raised, $11,053,043 spent
• Joe Heck: $10,143,201 raised, $6,811,502 spent
• DSCC (pro-Cortez Masto): $6,490,471 spent
• Senate Leadership Fund (pro-Heck): $9,822,051 spent
• Senate Majority PAC (pro-Cortez Masto): $5,753,794 spent
• NRSC (pro-Heck): $7,361,685 spent
• Women Vote! (pro-Cortez Masto): $4,109,721 spent
• Freedom Partners Action Fund (pro-Heck): $6,749,081 spent
• Outside spending: $68,848,763
• Total spent in the race: $86,713,308
On the campaign trail
• Cortez Masto in (mostly) the South: With Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Heck in the north, his Democratic opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto, stumped in Southern Nevada. She spent Oct. 22 kicking off early voting, from union halls to UNLV to the Pride Festival. At the Ironworkers union hall in Henderson, Cortez Masto said, “This seat in the United States Senate is the pathway for the Democrats to take back the majority in the Senate.” The next day, she campaigned alongside President Barack Obama at a rally to support Hillary Clinton in North Las Vegas. Cortez Masto made a brief stop at a brunch event in Reno on Oct. 25 before returning to the south for more campaign stops the next two days. Democratic candidates and leadership have been out in full force in Clark County, encouraging party members to turn out for early voting and secure a significant lead going into Election Day.
• Heck in the North: Heck focused most of his attention on northern and rural Nevada last week. Over the weekend, he kicked off the first day of early voting with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at rallies in Reno and Elko. “We realize how important Northern Nevada is — that’s why we’re out here today and heading to Elko next,” Heck said, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “We’ve got to make sure we get folks up in Northern Nevada out to the polls. We feel we have the best platform for folks in Northern Nevada.” On Monday, he made stops in several of Nevada’s rural cities — Goldfield, Hawthorne and Fernley. He also received an assist from Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who campaigned alongside Heck at a national security roundtable on Oct. 25 in Reno. The Gazette-Journal reported that the three faced tough questions over their decision not to support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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