With the U.S. Senate in a 50-50 split, people like Time’s Philip Elliot believe that the result of the Nevada general election to be held on November 8, 2022, will be critical to determining whether the Democratic Party will be able to hold on to its slim majority in the Senate. This means that the impending showdown between Incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt carries even more stakes than usual, both at the state, and the national level.

Catherine Cortez Masto is a former attorney and the 32nd attorney general of Nevada. She replaced outgoing Senator Harry Reid in the 2016 elections to become the first woman ever elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. She won her bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination by a landslide victory on June 14, 2022. Cortez Masto is the current Chair of the Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining, and she’s also assigned to twelve other committees and subcommittees. If re-elected, she plans to continue supporting law enforcement agencies and keeping the state safe, boosting NV’s economy, and expanding access to affordable health care.

Adam Laxalt, also an attorney, directly succeeded Cortez Masto as the 33rd attorney general of the state. Laxalt comes from a long line of politicians such as Paul Laxalt and Pete Domenici. In 2018, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Nevada. Laxalt was among nine Republicans who declared their intention to run for senator on the platform of the party. He won the primary election, getting 56% of the votes on June 14, 2022. Laxalt has been very vocal about several matters he believes are stunting the progress of the state and nation. As a U.S. Senator, he promises to bring major reforms to existing immigration policies, get tough on crime, protect election integrity and defend the second amendment.

This has left Nevadans asking, who would make a better representative to the Senate from Nevada, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto or Republican Adam Laxalt?