Would a Harris win mean a cabinet post for Cortez Masto?
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has become a key confidant for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, though she brushed aside claims that she is being eyed for a Cabinet position should Harris win in November.
Axios reported last week that Democratic strategists have floated some names for top Cabinet positions under a Harris administration, including Cortez Masto as attorney general.
Cortez Masto told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a Thursday interview that those are rumors, and she is “more than happy” with what she is doing now representing Nevada. When asked if she would consider taking on the role if Harris asked her to, Cortez Masto answered by saying her focus is on Nevada.
“This is what I was re-elected to do,” she said. “I am 100 percent into working on behalf of Nevada, finding solutions for the families and businesses here, and making sure we’re doing everything we can to support working families and businesses.”
Nevada’s senior senator might have come up as an possible hire because of her close relationship with Harris. They got to know each other when they both served as attorneys general in the neighboring states of Nevada and California.
They worked together on issues their states had in common, such as the banking crisis as well as transnational crime that was coming across the southern border, Cortez Masto said.
“It was just over the course of being attorneys general, we bonded and built a friendship as well,” Cortez Masto said.
Since Harris has stepped up as the Democratic presidential nominee in July, the Nevada senator has taken on a role as an adviser to Harris’ campaign, serving on a vetting team to pick Harris’ vice presidential running mate.
“She knows she can trust me,” Cortez Masto said. “I’m always candid with her.”
She said she comes from a swing state and understands the issues Nevadans care about, which she said is important to the Harris campaign. She also made it through a tough re-election bid in 2022, securing her victory by less than 1 percentage point.
Cortez Masto’s narrow 2022 victory maintained the Democrats’ lead in the Senate. Leaving her position could leave the Democrats’ control of the Senate vulnerable, according to UNLV political science professor Dan Lee. He said Nevada law would require Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo to appoint a qualified Democrat to serve until the next general election in 2026.
Cortez Masto said if a presidential candidate comes to Nevada and talks to voters, understands the issues and focuses on solutions, then “you’re going to be pretty much successful anywhere else because we’re such a diverse state, and we really are a microcosm of the rest of the country.”
A previous version of this story did not fully explain how a U.S. Senate vacancy is filled in Nevada.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.