Catherine Cortez Masto

United States senator
Also known as: Catherine Marie Cortez
Quick Facts
Née:
Catherine Marie Cortez
Born:
March 29, 1964, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. (age 61)

Catherine Cortez Masto (born March 29, 1964, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2016 and began her first term representing Nevada in that body the following year; she was the first Latina to serve as a U.S. senator and was reelected in 2022. She previously was attorney general for the state (2007–15).

Cortez was born in Las Vegas, the seat of Clark county. Her grandfather was an immigrant from Chihuahua, Mexico, and her father, Manny Cortez, was an ally of Democratic politician Harry Reid. After studying finance at the University of Nevada (B.S., 1986), she earned a law degree (1990) from Gonzaga University. Cortez then worked for Gov. Bob Miller, eventually becoming his chief of staff (1995–99). During this time she met Paul Masto, a U.S. Secret Service agent, and the couple later married.

From 1999 to 2001 Cortez Masto worked as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C. She then served as assistant manager of Clark county (2002–05). In 2006 she won election as the state’s attorney general, serving the full two-term limit from 2007 to 2015. Like Kamala Harris, attorney general of neighboring California, she gained national attention for her role in a nationwide mortgage-fraud settlement that brought Nevada more than $1.9 billion. She also headed large-scale prosecutions of illegal drug and sex traffickers.

In 2015 Reid, a longtime senator, announced that he would not seek a sixth term. Cortez Masto was persuaded to run for his seat, and she faced off against Republican Joe Heck, who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives. The highly contentious campaign featured intensively negative advertisements and involved spending in excess of $100 million, much of it from out of state. Cortez Masto consistently trailed in the polls until Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s negative remarks about Hispanics helped consolidate southern Nevada’s heavily Hispanic vote in her favor. She ultimately carried the state by a five-point margin of victory, having campaigned on a platform that included raising the minimum wage, protecting Medicare and Social Security, and passing comprehensive immigration reform. In addition to being the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate, Cortez Masto became the first woman to represent Nevada in that body when she took office in 2017.

Cortez Masto opposed many of Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s policies. During her first year in office she voted against a massive tax-reform bill and helped defeat efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In 2019 the House of Representatives impeached Trump, who was accused of withholding aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the country into opening a corruption investigation into Joe Biden (in 2020 Biden became the Democratic presidential nominee). Cortez Masto voted for Trump’s conviction during the Senate trial in 2020, but the president was acquitted in an almost party-line vote. Shortly thereafter the U.S. economy collapsed as schools and businesses began closing due to the coronavirus pandemic. With its reliance on the hospitality industry, Nevada was especially hard hit, and Cortez Masto secured various relief measures for the state.

In the 2020 presidential election, Cortez Masto endorsed Biden, who went on to defeat Trump. However, Trump challenged the results, alleging widespread voter fraud despite a lack of evidence. On January 6, 2021, Cortez Masto and other members of Congress met to certify Biden’s victory, and the proceedings were temporarily halted after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. Shortly thereafter the House impeached Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection.” Cortez Masto, who had condemned the violence, voted to convict, but Trump was acquitted in the Senate. A supporter of abortion rights, she criticized the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. That year Cortez Masto faced a challenging reelection bid, and she frequently trailed her Republican opponent in the polls. She won the seat by a narrow margin nonetheless.

Are you a student?
Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.
Gregory Lewis McNamee The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Nevada, constituent state of the United States of America. It borders Oregon and Idaho to the north, Utah to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and California to the west. It ranks seventh among the 50 U.S. states in terms of total area. It also, however, is one of the most sparsely settled. Carson City, in the western part of the state, is the capital. Nevada became the 36th state of the union on October 31, 1864.

Nevada is located in a mountainous region that includes vast semiarid grasslands and sandy alkali deserts. It is the most arid state of the country. The state takes its name from the Spanish nevada (“snow-clad”), a reference to the high mountain scenery of the Sierra Nevada on the western border with California.

Quick Facts
state seal of Nevada
2 of 4
Seal of Nevada
Nevada state bird
3 of 4
Nevada state bird
Nevada state flower
4 of 4
Nevada state flower
Capital:
Carson City
Population1:
(2020) 3,104,614; (2024 est.) 3,267,467
Governor:
Joe Lombardo (Republican)
Date Of Admission:
October 31, 1864
U.S. Senators:
Catherine Cortez Masto (Democrat)
Jacky Rosen (Democrat)
State Nickname:
Sagebrush State
Silver State
Battle Born State
State Motto:
“All for Our Country”
State Bird:
mountain bluebird
State Flower:
sagebrush
State Song:
“Home Means Nevada”
Seats In U.S. House Of Representatives:
4 (of 435)
Time Zone:
Pacific (GMT − 8 hours)
Total Area (Sq Km):
286,380
Total Area (Sq Mi):
110,572
  1. Excluding military abroad.

Nevada, which in the early 21st century was one of the fastest-growing states in the country, appears far removed from the days when Virginia City was a fabled frontier town, thriving on the rich silver mines of the Comstock Lode. However, many frontier qualities persist, though subtly transformed by a sophisticated urban environment. The prospectors digging against odds to find a bonanza have been replaced by the fortune seekers in the gambling casinos of Las Vegas and Reno, and the erstwhile “saloon diversions” have evolved into lavish nightclub entertainments.

The majority of Nevadans live in urban areas, with about half of the population residing in the Las Vegas metropolitan area alone. The vast undeveloped lands of the state provide a largely unexplored resource, and its combination of burgeoning cities and desert reaches make Nevada a unique phenomenon among U.S. states. Area 110,572 square miles (286,380 square km). Population (2020) 3,104,614; (2024 est.) 3,267,467.

Land

Relief

Most of Nevada lies within the Great Basin section of the Basin and Range Province, where the topography is characterized by rugged mountains, flat valleys with occasional buttes and mesas, and sandy desert regions. Crossing the state are more than 30 north-south mountain ranges, the majority of which reach more than 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) in elevation; the highest points are Boundary Peak, at 13,147 feet (4,007 metres), and Wheeler Peak, at 13,065 feet (3,982 metres). The southern area of the state is within the Mojave Desert; the lowest elevation, 470 feet (143 metres), is in that region, on the Colorado River just below Black Canyon.

Extruded map of the United States of America with states borders on national flag background. (3-d rendering)
Britannica Quiz
Guess the U.S. State by Its Neighbors

Drainage

The state’s rivers depend on the melting of winter snows and on spring precipitation. Almost all of the rivers drain into lakes that have no outlets or into shallow sinks that in summer evaporate into alkaline mud flats. The Humboldt, the largest of Nevada’s rivers, provides the state’s only major east-west drainage system. The Truckee, Carson, and Walker rivers, which rise in the Sierra Nevada, serve extensive irrigation and reclamation projects in their areas. The Muddy and Virgin rivers, in southern Nevada, are related to the Colorado River system, which drains into the Gulf of California.

Several lakes provide scenic and recreational attractions. Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, is particularly notable for its clarity, depth, and scenic beauty. Pyramid, Walker, and Winnemucca lakes are remnants of an ancient sea. In relation to its area, however, Nevada has little surface water. The increasing demands of urbanization, industry, and agriculture are exhausting both groundwater and surface resources, and scarcity of water is an increasing concern. The impounded waters of Lake Mead, extending for some 115 miles (185 km) behind Hoover Dam, provide reserves for the southeastern area. The state relies heavily on allocations of water from the Colorado River, a reliance that has yielded a continuing legacy of litigation and conflict with neighbouring states over water rights.

Are you a student?
Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Climate

The mountains of the Sierra Nevada along the state’s western boundary often cause clouds of Pacific origin to drop their moisture before reaching Nevada, thus producing a semiarid climate. The driest regions are in the southeast and near Carson Sink (a now-dry basin that was the centre of a lake system during the last major ice age, some 11,500 years ago), where annual precipitation seldom exceeds 4 inches (100 mm). The northeast has as little as 8 inches (200 mm) of precipitation annually, whereas annual precipitation in the northwestern mountains often reaches 24 inches (600 mm). Temperatures vary as widely. July temperatures average about 70 °F (21° C) in the north and in the mid-80s F (about 30 °C) in the south. In January the averages range from the low 20s F (about −4 °C) in the north to about 40 °F (4 °C) in the south. The northern and eastern areas have long, cold winters and short, relatively hot summers, whereas in southern Nevada the summers are long and hot and the winters brief and mild. Regional differences are pointed up by variations in the growing season: Las Vegas has about 240 days in its growing season, Reno about 155, and Elko only about 100.