Donald Trump wins Nevada

Former President Donald Trump won Nevada on Saturday, returning the state and its six electoral votes to Republicans for the first time since President George W. Bush carried it in 2004.Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris made multiple campaign stops in the state this year. Most of Nevada's counties are rural and voted heavily for Trump in 2020.Video above: Will the TikTok ban still happen under Donald Trump?But Democrat Joe Biden that year won the two most populous counties of Washoe and Clark, the latter of which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of the state's residents.The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 12:15 a.m. EST.The Associated Press declared Trump the winner after concluding there were not enough uncounted ballots in the state's strongest Democratic areas to overcome the former president's 46,000-vote lead over the Democratic nominee.Trump clinched a second term early Wednesday when Wisconsin pushed him past the 270 electoral votes needed to win, so Nevada's six electoral votes only added to the size of his victory: He now has 301 electoral votes and has won six of the seven battleground states. Only Arizona remains to be called.The AP only declares a winner once it can determine that a trailing candidate can't close the gap and overtake the vote leader.Here's a look at how the AP called this race:CANDIDATES: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Joel Skousen (Independent American Party) vs. "None of these candidates."WINNER: Trump.POLL CLOSING TIME: 10 p.m. ETABOUT THE RACE:Nevada has one of the nation's best overall track records as a presidential bellwether, although voters there supported Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. The state remains a hotly contested battleground. Both Harris and Trump made frequent visits to Nevada since becoming their parties' nominees, including Halloween rallies in Clark County, home of Henderson and Las Vegas. Both campaigns concentrated their visit to those two cities, as well as Reno in Washoe County.In statewide elections, Democrats tend to carry only two of Nevada's 17 counties: Clark and Washoe. Whether they win depends on how big their margins are in those two counties. Clark County has by far the largest population in the state. A large vote margin there is vital to Democratic electoral success. It comprised 69% of the total statewide vote in 2020. Washoe is more competitive, although Democrats have consistently prevailed there in high-profile statewide campaigns, including Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak's unsuccessful 2022 reelection bid. Republicans tend to win the rest of the state by wide margins.WHY AP CALLED THE RACE:Most of the final ballots to be counted come from Clark and Washoe counties. They both have long-established histories of supporting Democrats for president. Statewide, votes counted after Election Day have also tended to favor Democrats.Trump's vote lead narrowed as more of these ballots are counted over the course of the week, but Harris was not winning those ballots by a large enough margin to overtake Trump for the lead. At the time AP called the race, AP estimated Harris would need to win 85% of all ballots left to count — a margin of victory she never achieved in any update since polls closed.Also in Nevada early Saturday morning, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen won reelection, beating Republican Sam Brown in a tight but unusually quiet race for the battleground state.Rosen, a first-term senator, campaigned on abortion rights and positioned herself as a nonideological politician, a formula that also worked for the state’s senior senator, Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, in her own reelection bid two years ago.Brown, a retired Army captain who moved to Nevada from Texas in 2018 and has never held elected office, unsuccessfully tried to ride Trump's strong showing in the working-class state. He had Trump’s support in the Republican primary and won easily, but he was significantly outspent during the campaign, leaving Rosen to dominate the airwaves for months.Rosen, a former Las Vegas-area synagogue president and computer programmer, ran ads touting herself as an independent who doesn’t listen to “party leaders.”She also spotlighted her work on expanding broadband internet access and helping to connect Las Vegas with Southern California via light rail.And she hammered Brown for his opposition to abortion rights, saying he would support a national abortion ban despite Brown’s statements that he respects Nevada voters' choice decades ago to legalize abortions.A ballot measure this year that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution passed. Voters must again approve it in 2026 in order to amend the constitution.The Senate contest drew relatively little national interest for most of the campaign, a striking contrast with the presidential race as both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris targeted the state and its six electoral votes. Conservative money flowed in during the final days as the GOP posted a strong showing in early period, but Brown was unable to fully fight back.Analysts note that Nevada has a history of backing no-nonsense senators who deliver funding from Washington.Brown, who was awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan, was grievously wounded by an improvised explosive device there in 2008 and endured 30 surgeries as he recuperated. In campaign ads he repeatedly mentioned that his face remains heavily scarred from the attack.He is also the founder of a medical company that serves veterans.Brown previously made an unsuccessful bid in 2022 for the Republican nomination to face Cortez Masto.All four of Nevada's U.S. House incumbents — three Democrats and one Republican — also won reelection this year.