Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., defeated Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. Tuesday night, flipping a Senate seat that was one of the Democrats’ top targets this year.
In a battle that came down to the wire, Rosen, a one-term House member, defeated Heller and his bid for re-election. The race was considered one of the top pick-up opportunities for Democrats as Heller occupied the only GOP-held seat on the 2018 map where Hillary Clinton defeated President Trump two years ago.
Rosen won in part due to her prolific fundraising ability, including outspending Heller on the airwaves by a 4-1 margin at times during the homestretch of the campaign. in the first 17 days of October, she raised 5.1 million — $300,000 a day — that helped propel her to the Tuesday night win.
Heller had said that a “green wave” was the only way Democrats could defeat him.
The loss was Heller’s first in his political career, dating back to 1990 when he ran for the Nevada State Assembly, as well as his first loss on the ballot for statewide office after three terms as secretary of state and his 2012 Senate win. Heller was one of the few Republicans to win in 2012 when then President Barack Obama won re-election.
Since 2012, Heller had carved an image of a bipartisan deal-maker. However, he was also a top ally of President Trump despite having a frosty relationship with him prior to his presidential win. Shortly before the 2016 election, Heller said that while he was 100 percent against Clinton, he was “99 percent against Trump.”
However, the script has flipped since then. Heller was an integral part of the GOP push to pass the tax bill that became law last December. Trump, along with Vice President Pence campaigned for Heller on multiple occasions in the state, including once in Las Vegas earlier in 2018, and again closer to election day in Elko, where Heller’s proximity to the president was on display.
“Mr. President, this is not the swamp. Now, Mr. President, you know a little bit about gold. In fact, I think everything you touch turns to gold,” Heller said while opening up for Trump at the rally.
The Nevada senator also came under relentless attacks over the past year for his vote for the “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and support for a proposal that would have converted of the ACA’s funding for the Medicaid expansion and tax credits into block grants given to states. This came months after Heller held a highly-publicized press conference with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, where he announced he could not support the Senate’s initial package to replace the ACA, listing a laundry list of reasons for his opposition.
Rosen and national Democrats hammered Heller on the airwaves for the perceived flip-flop.
Despite running a campaign that was prolific fundraising-wise, Rosen was by no means the Democrats first choice to take on Heller. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lamented that Rosen didn’t have a very long resume before she took the plunge last year only months after defeating Danny Tarkanian for her congressional seat.
Heller was in a statistical tie with Rosen heading into election day, according to the final RealClearPolitics average of polls.
