LAS VEGAS (AP) — The battle for the U.S. Senate in Nevada will draw political attention Thursday as incumbent Democrat Jacky Rosen and Republican challenger Sam Brown hold their only face-to-face debate before early voting begins ahead of the presidential elections. November 5.
The hourlong performance, presented by KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, will be broadcast live in both English and Spanish in the key state where abortion, inflation and immigration are among the top issues and voters have been inundated with ads for both candidates.
The outcome of the race could affect party balance in the Senate, where Democrats have limited control over Republicans.
The election pits Rosen, a first-term senator seen as a political consensus builder, against Brown, a retired Army captain who bears scars from battlefield injuries and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Each has mentioned the other extreme.
Brown pledged to secure the U.S. border during a campaign rally last Friday in Reno; make housing more affordable; lower prices for food, fuel and medicine; end taxes on tips; and abolish taxes on Social Security benefits.
Rosen argues that her challenger is out of touch with the people of Nevada, where nonpartisan and other voters make up nearly 40% of the statewide electorate of 2.4 million. Voting is Republican in rural areas and Democratic in the two most populous and urban areas: Las Vegas and Reno.
Data shows Rosen has a 3-1 lead in fundraising and spending, and a lead in voter polls. Several Republican elected officials have said they plan to break ranks with the Republican Party and vote for Rosen, including the mayors of Sparks, near Reno, and Ely in rural Eastern Nevada.
Rosen has home court advantage in and around Las Vegas, where she has lived for more than 40 years. She was a computer programmer and president of a prominent synagogue in the suburb of Henderson before being elected to Congress in 2016 and defeating a Republican incumbent to move to the Senate in 2018.
Brown was seriously injured in 2008 while serving in Afghanistan and spent years recovering before leaving the military in 2011. He started a company that helped veterans obtain medical care and ran unsuccessfully for a Texas statehouse seat in 2014 before moving to Nevada in 2018. GOP primary bid in 2022 to challenge Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.
Abortion is a key issue in Nevada, with voters facing a ballot initiative aimed at enshrining a 1990 law into the state constitution that makes the procedure legal for up to 24 weeks. Democrats across the country have made abortion rights a central message since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a nationwide right to abortion.
Brown describes himself as “pro-life,” and Rosen has said that if sent to Washington, DC, he would vote for a national abortion ban. Brown and his wife Amy told NBC News earlier this year that she had an abortion before the two met and his website states that as a senator, Brown would not vote to overturn Nevadans’ decision.
Brown has tried to blame Rosen for the Biden administration’s economic policies, which Republicans say led to high inflation as the country recovered from the coronavirus pandemic.
Rosen released a new ad this week offering work to lower prescription drug costs, stop price gouging by supermarket chains and tackle housing costs.
Brown has closely associated himself with Trump, who disputed his narrow presidential election loss to Biden in Nevada in 2020. The state’s top election official, a Republican, was later censured by the state GOP for saying the vote count was not marred by widespread fraud. .
Early voting begins in Nevada on Saturday.
