Susie Lee, Steven Horsford cling to close congressional leads
Two of Nevada’s congressional races remained close as of Wednesday evening, with most of the four major-party candidates choosing to stay tight-lipped as they await a crucial Thursday morning update from Clark County election officials.
The race for Nevada’s 3rd District, representing parts of Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City, was perhaps even closer on election night than what was nationally advertised through months of bitterly fought campaigning.
Freshman Rep. Susie Lee, a Democrat, held a 1.5 percent lead over Republican small businessman Dan Rodimer as of Wednesday night.
Nevada’s other competitive congressional race, this one in the sprawling 4th District, also remained tight ahead of the planned Clark County updates.
Rep. Steven Horsford led Republican small businessman and former Assemblyman Jim Marchant, 50 percent to 47 percent.
All results are preliminary and unofficial until certified by election personnel, which will not happen until Nov. 16 at the earliest. Nevada will continue to count mail ballots until at least Nov. 10.
It’s unclear just how many votes remain to be counted in either race. All of the 3rd District is in Clark County, but the 4th includes all or part of six smaller, Republican-favoring counties with a part of Clark.
According to turnout figures from the Nevada secretary of state’s office, tens of thousands of Clark County mail ballots, which have heavily favored Democrats, have not yet been reflected in the preliminary returns released Wednesday morning.
Lee’s campaign released a statement late on election night: “While we know everyone is anxious to get results, we will patiently wait for every vote to be counted. With the majority of votes in, we feel confident that Susie Lee will maintain her current lead, and is in a strong position to win re-election to Congress.”
The campaign said it had nothing further to add on Wednesday.
Rodimer’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Marchant issued a statement on Wednesday, saying “I am confident that after the votes are counted, despite the massive irregularities, that President Trump and I will be successful in Nevada.”
The “massive irregularities” refer to a statement released Wednesday by the Trump campaign and Nevada Republican Party, in which the party alleged to have received “thousands of complaints” from voters about issues during the general election.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria said during a news conference Wednesday that, apart from a connectivity issue that delayed the opening of some vote centers on Election Day, he was not aware of any widespread issues.
Horsford’s campaign said it would not have a statement until Thursday.
Rep. Dina Titus, the Democratic dean of Nevada’s congressional delegation, won her race handedly on election night. In an interview with the Review-Journal on Wednesday, she expressed confidence in her colleagues’ chances.
“The votes left are mostly mail and in Clark County, and those have been favoring Democrats,” Titus said. “Steven will be fine, and Susie finished her campaign strong. I don’t see it going (Republicans’) way.”
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Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.
