By Laya Albert, Alicia Álvarez, Jarrett Carpenter, Siara Carpenter, Samira Felix, Jinge Li, Tatiana Sataua and Samuel Spitz

LAS VEGAS — The stakes are so high that the men who want to be vice president held competitive events Saturday morning: 25 minutes and worlds apart.

While no one yet knows who the winner here (and the Electoral College winner) will be, one thing is certain. The fates of Sen. Jacky Rosen and Rep. Susie Lee are closely tied to the national mood and whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris prevail.

The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Steve Daines, of Montana, was one of the protagonists of a rally in favor of Ohio Senator JD Vance, a running mate who is defending both Trump and Sam Brown in a Senate race. qualified Lean Democratic by internal elections with Nathan L. Gonzales.

“We, through my leadership, have a responsibility to make sure that when Donald Trump is elected president we give him a Republican majority in the Senate and fire Chuck Schumer,” Daines said of the current Senate majority leader, among applause inside the Whitney. Recreation Center.

Walking through the city

At the same time, celebrities and pollsters alike crowded into a business office to listen to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz encourage the faithful before they took to the streets. They filled the room with enthusiastic chatter.

Lee, first elected in 2018 and in a Probable Democratic racetold the alert group of Harris-Walz supporters that they “need to connect” with voters in the final weekend of the election. Lee explained that Joe Biden won his congressional district by a margin of 13,000 in 2020 on his way to narrowly winning the Silver State, emphasizing the need to get every vote possible.

“If you win Congressional District 3, Kamala Harris will go to the White House. And Hakeem Jeffries will have that gavel in his hand,” Lee said.

House Minority Leader Jeffries was not in Nevada, but Democrats, including Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford of Nevada and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán of California, were helping promote the ticket later that day at Taco Fest in North Las Vegas.

Walz also underscored what’s at stake: “They send (Lee) back and we get a couple of seats, we have Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats in charge so that President Harris’ agenda can be passed.”

At a Souls to the Polls event Sunday morning, Rep. Barbara Lee of California expressed precision in telling congregants that big Democratic victories would mean Jeffries would make history as the first black speaker.

Identification name

Nevada voters didn’t seem to care much about the men who might control the House and Senate in January. In fact, conversations with dozens of people in Clark County over three days found few who could even identify their senator or her rival.

“Honestly, I just voted against the ticket…given the cult surrounding the Republican Party with the rise of Donald Trump, I don’t trust any R’s right now,” said Daniel Connaway, who moved to Nevada 24 years ago . from Florida. He said that growing up in the South he was “ostracized for having black friends.”

Just after casting her vote Friday in the final hours of in-person early voting at the Sahara West Library, Connaway said she made the decision to back Harris considering her daughter’s future.

Other Nevadans who have not yet voted appear to be in a similar position.

“In recent years I’ve felt that it’s more important that if you want your president to do something, then you’re going to have to vote for people who also agree with his policies,” said Holdyn Heath, 26, who attended Taco Fest on Saturday with his father.

Still, he didn’t know who was running for office.

“I don’t know the names, we just moved here,” said Heath, who moved to North Las Vegas from Tennessee with his family in September and is currently looking for a job.

“Depending on the policies, I’ve always gone Republican because it’s less government and more for the people, but it mostly depends on the policies,” Heath said. He said he was undecided before Saturday but will back Trump at the polls. His father, Shawn Heath, 50, carried a sign that read “Latin Americans for Donald Trump” under his arm as he explored Taco Fest.

Anyone who turned on a TV here over the weekend was inundated with ads. Many labeled Brown and also Lee’s opponent, Drew Johnson, as abortion extremists, another message Democrats are using to get out the vote across the country.

“This election is literally life or death,” “Only Murders in the Building” star Eva Longoria said at the Walz event. “Especially for women.”

brown answers

Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown returns to his own campaign tent after greeting supporters of his rival, Sen. Jacky Rosen, at Taco Fest in Las Vegas on Nov. 2. (Christina Bellantoni/USC Annenberg Media)

Brown said in an interview Saturday that ads showing he opposes abortion “without exception” are misleading and false, especially given his own wife’s abortion history. Brown met her shortly after her abortion, when she was still recovering from this “traumatic” experience, he said, and supports the exceptions.

“It is very disappointing that Senator Rosen and her allies knowingly lied about my position,” Brown said. “If they were trying to make this a partisan, misleading attack on me it’s shameful and we don’t need any more of that.”

On the ballot in Nevada is Proposition 6 to enshrine the right to abortion in the Nevada Constitution. This right is currently protected under Nevada law, but passage of the measure would make it more difficult to repeal.

Reproductive Freedom For All honored Día de Los Muertos with an ofrenda, or altar of offerings, featuring women from across the country who died from lack of access to abortion services at a Harris phone bank on Friday.

Organizers said both the presidential and Senate races are important.

The group’s president, Mini Timmaraju, stressed the importance of voting up and down on the ballot to send hypothetical President Harris a federal bill to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade.

“But if Kamala Harris doesn’t win, she won’t be able to sign that bill,” Timmaraju said. “If Jacky Rosen doesn’t win, that bill won’t go to his desk. You have to win everything.”

Rosen spent the final week of the campaign traveling between Reno and Las Vegas to meet with workers and encourage early voting. She was joined by Jimmy Kimmel, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth and local organizers. On Sunday morning he attended a campaign kickoff with the hosts of Pod Save America launched from a house not far from downtown Las Vegas.

He downplayed Daines’ comments about a Republican majority in the Senate.

“I feel confident that we are going to maintain the majority in the Senate because we have enthusiasm,” Rosen said in an interview. “If you want to have the freedom to be able to talk, speak, have healthcare, education and options, then the choice is clear. “It’s voting for Democrats.”

Most of the six speakers at Vance’s rally on Saturday, including vice presidential candidate and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, sharply criticized Rosen.

“Unfortunately, you have one of the worst senators,” Vance told the overcapacity crowd, labeling Rosen “a person who pretends to be a reasonable moderate.”

“She does not support Nevada values. You know the one who will support Nevada values ​​is the great Sam Brown,” Vance said.

Daines made an even more direct link to the power of the Senate, asking the crowd to imagine Trump returning to the White House and sending nominations for Treasury, Defense, State and the CIA to the Senate.

“If Jacky Rosen were elected, I would vote ‘No’ on every one of those nominees and you can take that to the bank,” Daines said. “If I elected Sam Brown, I would vote ‘Yes’ with President Trump.”

Helen Shapiro, 70, recently retired as a manufacturing accounting manager and moved to Nevada from Fontana, California, to cut costs. He said Brown is equivalent to Trump, while “Rosen stands firm with Kamala Harris.”

“I don’t trust Sam Brown to do anything good for the state,” Shapiro said before going out to sound out Harris and Walz. “He is a MAGA and MAGA will do anything to harm people.”

Will Anderson stands near the Voter Truck at a canvassing event in Las Vegas on November 3. (Christina Bellantoni/USC Annenberg Media)

Rosen wasn’t there, but parked outside Walz’s event was The Voter Truck, a grassroots organization created in response to the 2016 election, dedicated to elevating artists and making their voices heard. The neon signs are “perfect for Nevada,” explained Will Anderson, a volunteer with the organization for the past two years.

Anderson said he started in his home state of Georgia to help re-elect Sen. Raphael Warnock. In this cycle, he left his home state of Georgia to help Rosen’s re-election campaign. “To retain control of the Senate, we are all going to come in here,” he said.