By
Former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s victory in Tuesday’s GOP primary kicks off the Nevada Senate race, which is expected to be one of the most competitive — and expensive — in the country.
So far the Nevada race has attracted the second largest amount of ad reservations of any Senate contest, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Candidates and outside groups from both parties have reserved a combined $65 million in airtime in Nevada through Election Day. That’s second only to the Georgia Senate race, where $104 million has been reserved.
The ad reservations in Nevada are lopsided so far, with Democrats reserving $46.6 million worth of airtime, and Republicans reserving $18.4 million.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto also starts the race with a financial advantage. Her campaign has raised $26.3 million as and had $9.1 million on hand as of May 25, per campaign finance filings. Laxalt’s campaign has raised $5.9 million and had $2.1 million on hand.
Laxalt did have to spend some campaign funds in the primary, where he defeated Army veteran Sam Brown. With 79 % of the vote in, Laxalt had won 56 % of the vote while Brown won 34 %.
The Nevada race is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country. President Joe Biden won the state by just 2 percentage points in 2020. Hillary Clinton won Nevada by the same margin in 2016, when Cortez Masto won a first term by 2 points as well. The Cook Political Report rates the race a Toss Up.
