Cortez Masto wins in Nevada; Democrats hold onto Senate

The Associated Press called the Nevada Senate race for incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto Saturday night, securing Democratic control of the upper chamber while several races in the House remain too close to call.

Cortez Masto, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, was among the most endangered Senate Democrats heading into the 2022 midterms but prevailed over the Republican challenger, Nevada State Attorney General Adam Laxalt, according to The Associated Press. The race was called by the news organization late Saturday night.

Cortez Masto's successful reelection bid gives Democrats a bare 50-seat majority in the Senate ahead of a runoff election in Georgia that will be held next month. That race, between fellow Democratic Senate Banking Committee member Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, is being held because neither Warnock nor Walker achieved a majority of the vote in Tuesday's election. In an evenly-divided Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tiebreaking vote, effectively giving Democrats a majority with only 50 votes. 

The come-from-behind victory means the Biden administration will have a better chance of pushing through appointments for important federal regulatory posts, as well as any judicial vacancies. Presidential appointments are confirmed by the Senate but not the House of Representatives.

Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, has etched out a progressive but pragmatic profile on the Senate Banking Committee during her tenure. On the campaign trail, she emphasized her role in pandemic-era spending that she said supported Nevada's tourism industry throughout the economic downturn. She also pointed to the role she played as attorney general of the state when it received $1.9 billion from the National Mortgage Settlement following the 2008 financial crisis. She characterizes this on her website as having "held the Big Banks accountable." 

Earlier this year, Cortez Masto joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., in introducing a bill that would require the country's largest private companies to file public reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She's also introduced a bill that would require the 11 government-sponsored Federal Home Loan banks to boost their investments in affordable housing and community development, and another to incentivize whistleblowers to report consumer fraud to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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The Democrats' retention of Senate control — even with a bare majority — is a boon to the Biden administration and its ability to appoint critical regulatory personnel. Both the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are being filled on an acting basis by Martin Gruenberg and Michael Hsu, respectively, and a Democratic majority in the Senate means the administration has a freer hand in making permanent appointments to those positions.

In the case of the FDIC, that need is made all the more critical after the White House announced its picks for the vice chair and minority party member of the FDIC in September, a move that meant the administration would have to announce a choice for a permanent chair if it wanted to retain a Democratic majority on the five-member board.