Nevada Democrats Titus and Horsford keep their US House seats

LAS VEGAS -- Democrats will keep control of at least two U.S. House seats in Nevada after the incumbents won reelection Thursday.

The Associated Press declared Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus the winners in their races. The race for Democratic Rep. Susie Lee’s seat was still too early to call, while Nevada’s lone Republican Congressman, Mark Amodei, cruised to victory Tuesday night.

Horsford, a four-term congressman, became the first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress when he was first elected to the House. This year, he defeated former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee in a district that stretches north from Las Vegas, toward rural Nye County in the west and along the Utah border in the eastern portion of the district. Lee, a former Democrat, switched parties and ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for governor.

For Titus, it was the second election in a row that she defeated Republican Mark Robertson, a retired Army colonel, to keep her seat in the Las Vegas district she has represented for more than a decade. Republican-leaning suburban areas were folded into the district after boundaries were redrawn, making it a GOP target.

AP left email and phone messages Thursday for Robertson and his campaign seeking comment.

Titus had declared victory on Wednesday as the vote count leaned in her favor, and thanked voters for allowing her to serve another term.

“I will press for my legislation to create more affordable housing, combat the effects of extreme heat, and create good union jobs like building Brightline," she said, referencing the high-speed rail that will connect Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area. “I also will resist any effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act and defend seniors against any move to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits.”

Titus is the longest-serving member of the Nevada delegation in Washington and represents a district that includes the Las Vegas Strip, part of suburban Henderson and Boulder City. She campaigned on abortion access and the need for affordable housing in southern Nevada.

Titus was first elected to Congress in 2008 after serving 20 years as a Nevada state senator, but narrowly lost that seat after two terms. She was elected again in 2013 to her current district and has been reelected every two years. Titus is originally from Georgia and taught government for more than three decades at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

In 2022, Titus defeated Robertson by more than 5 percentage points, but Democrats sacrificed part of her traditional stronghold during redistricting in exchange for some Democratic party gains in neighboring swing districts. That made Titus more vulnerable in the race.

Robertson is a business owner who taught military science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has never held political office and echoes policies favored by President-elect Donald Trump on border security, inflation and the economy. He did not receive Trump’s personal endorsement.