Report: Catherine Cortez Masto.
Introduction:
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat was the first female Latina ever elected to the United States Senate in 2016. She stands as a beacon of hope for the people of Nevada, inspiring minority groups, and displaying the effects of hard work and perseverance. Her success has captured national attention, and its importance has extended the state's borders. Cortez Masto successfully navigates critical local and national issues under a politically divided nation seeking direction amid significant economic and social challenges. Her journey is notable and memorable, both in following stereotypical female political attributes, and straying from the norms to build her own approach.
Biography and Personal History:
To understand Catherine Cortez Masto’s rise in political leadership, it is important to understand her familial upbringings, and the nature in which she was raised. Born in Las Vegas to an immigrant family– her father’s side from Mexico, and Mother’s from Italy– Catherine grew up surrounded by what she describes as “love, food, and faith” (Meet Catherine).
Before our female political leader’s birth, Cortez Masto’s father, Manuel (Manny) Cortez, served in the United States Military. After his service, he returned to Las Vegas where he met Catherine’s mother and began his ascent in the Las Vegas city council. Manny attended Nevada Southern University as a pre-law student and worked nights as a parking attendant. Through hard work and perseverance, he made his way up to serve as a Clark County Commissioner and became the head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Manuel was instrumental in helping the city grow as a tourist destination. He was responsible for greenlighting the city’s most famous slogan, “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.” (ag nv gov)
Catherine Cortez Masto grew up inspired by her father, she became the first in her family to officially graduate college. From the University of Nevada, Reno, with a degree in finance, to a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga School of Law in Spokane, Washington, 1990. Catherine soon attained her dream, she was admitted to the Nevada State Bar and began a clerkship for Judge Michael J. Wendell. In 1995, Catherine Cortez Masto began her political career when she joined Nevada Governor Bob Miller’s staff. Following this experience, Cortez Masto lived in Washington, DC, and worked as a federal prosecutor and assistant United States Attorney to David W. Ogden. Masto then moved back to Nevada and became the Assistant County Manager for Clark County. In 2005, Attorney General Brian Sandoval’s appointment as a federal court judge created a vacancy and an opportunity for Cortez Masto, she campaigned for the open seat, resigned as Assistant County Manager and continued campaigning to become the next Attorney General. On November 7, 2006, voters elected her as Nevada’s 32nd Attorney General. She served two terms, reelected in 2010. When United States Senator of Nevada Harry Reid decided not to run for re-election in 2016, he endorsed Cortez Masto as his successor. In November of 2016, Cortez Masto made history by becoming the first woman from Nevada and the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate.
In typical female politician style, Cortez Masto gained confidence through the experiences of a male figure in her circle. Her father’s experiences in the Nevada community likely sparked interest in policy. She grew from her father’s successes and followed in his footsteps. What is surprising and important to note is the way she entered politics from a background in law– a trend mainly seen among male politicians, while females typically enter the political sphere through community outreach (Dolan, et. al). Her late entrance to politics is again usual to the female experience, additionally Masto never originally saw herself climbing the political ladder. The Senator said, “there was never any [political] position I was interested in other than being the attorney general . . . I thought it was time to step up and take a leadership role and steer the ship to bring attention to issues and find solutions to problems.” (ag nv gov) She attributes her humble morals to her upbringing, “My family taught me to work hard, be honest, and respect everyone. That’s what I’ve done throughout my life and as your Senator.” Cortez Masto said. The typical female attributes found in Catherine Cortez Masto’s background are contrasted by typical male candidate’s attributes through her campaigns, fundraising, and elections.
Campaigns and Elections:
Nevada is typically seen as a “women-friendly” state, as it is progressive in gender representation for elected officials. NV was the first state in U.S. History to have a female-majority state legislature, which has made the state instrumental in advancing traditional “women’s issues” like reproductive rights, healthcare access, equal pay, parental leave, etc.
In 2006, in her election for Nevada Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto won by 59.03 % against her republican opponent Don Chairez. Then in 2010 for reelection, Cortez Masto received 52.8% votes to Republican Travis Barrick’s 35.7% of votes. In office as Attorney General, Masto served her full two term limit from 2007-2015, and had a heavy focus on stereotypical “women's issues”. She gained national attention for her role in nationwide mortgage fraud settlements and headed large-scale prosecutions of illegal drug and sex traffickers, victim right’s cases, etc. In this position she prioritized elder abuse, the methamphetamine epidemic, drug distribution, and domestic violence. Cortez Masto also had a heavy focus on advocating for women and children, she was especially concerned about human trafficking. In 2013, she sponsored a bill making human trafficking a felony crime in Nevada, and the bill also gave victims the right to sue their traffickers. The prison sentence of those convicted of human trafficking was lengthened, and it expanded the state’s sex offender registry by requiring human traffickers to register as sex offenders.
In the 2016 election for United States Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto faced off against Republican Joe Heck, who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Their campaign featured intensively negative advertisements against Cortez Masto, and counter ads made by Catherine Cortez Masto’s team and the democratic party, in her favor. This 2016 election was labeled as the most expensive election in Senate history. Our female candidate campaigned again on typical women’s issues, her platform that included raising the minimum wage, protecting Medicare and Social Security, and passing comprehensive immigration reform. Senator Cortez Masto ultimately won by a five-point margin of victory.
In the Senator’s challenging reelection bid of 2022, Cortez Masto frequently trailed her Republican opponent, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R). The election stood as a critical test of enduring power and symbolic representation in an increasingly diverse America and was crucial in securing a democratic hold of the Senate, ensuring that Democrats retained their majority and gained a net seat.
Immigration was a very important conversation throughout the campaign. Republican Candidate Adam Laxalt's campaign website said, "We have a crisis at our southern border that has put communities across Nevada in danger. As a Senator, [I] will work to finish the wall, implement other technological solutions, and close the porous southern border." As for Catherine Cortez Masto, her campaign focused on “[ensuring] we have an immigration system that treats everyone with dignity while also strengthening border security” (Cortez Masto). In terms of voter and party resonation with this issue, data from Somos Votantes and Somos PAC in Nevada indicated that Laxalt’s “anti-DACA and overall anti-immigrant stance was a disqualifying factor for the majority of Nevada voters, specifically independents, undecideds, and Latino voters,” said Melissa Morales, head of Somos PAC.
While some typical female attributes of election struggles prevail, Catherine Cortez Masto also defies female norms through her campaigns. She sticks to her family values, though she does not have children. She runs on important and stereotypically female issues, and she wins by slim margins in each of her elections. But surprisingly her funding has consistently been greater than that of her male counterparts. This contrasts textbook female politicians whose funding is of the greatest difficulty. A study found that there was on average a $500,000 gap in fundraising between male and female candidates for Congress– with males regularly taking the lead (NPR). Contrary to the discoveries of this study, Senator Masto consistently displays better fundraising throughout several elections in comparison to her counterparts. (Open Secrets)
Legislative Initiatives and Committees:
Consistently through her terms as Assistant County Manager of Clark County, Attorney General of Nevada, and later US Senator, Catherine Cortez Masto has always strongly prioritized the issues of her constituents– an attribute typically noted in other female politicians– in fact this is her strongest and most advertised priority. This is likely a behavior amplified by “gendered vulnerability,” a phenomenon that leads women politicians to feel that they must accomplish more than their male colleagues to achieve the same level of success, only due to their gender. (The Constitution Unit).
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is also Senate Democratic Outreach Vice Chair, meaning she is in a party leadership role and focuses on setting the party's legislative priorities, this is unlike textbook understanding of female politicians’ experiences which highlight their unlikelihood to hold positions of power .
The senator sits on a few committees that follow the stereotypes of women's issues, such as, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs where Cortez Masto Says, “My job is to represent all Nevadans, and I’ve worked to ensure the 28 Tribes, Bands, and Colonies in Nevada can get the support they need from the federal government.” (Committees)
Masto also sits on several committees that do not follow the typical understanding of “women's issues”, such as the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance. But she uses her placement in these positions to highlight back to her femininity, empathy, and familial values. Cortez Masto Says, “Protecting working families is my top priority in the Finance Committee. I used to sit at my grandmother’s dining room table every Sunday and help her balance her checkbook to make sure she could stretch her Social Security and Medicare benefits enough to pay the bills, put food on the table, and get the medicine she needed.”
Jacky Rosen is Catherine Cortez Masto’s Nevada State Senate Colleague- also Democratic. Because of her committee placements, she has a heavier focus on the federal military, armed forces, homeland security, etc.
Senator Cortez Masto’s recent member activity in sponsoring and cosponsoring the following bills includes recent S.3247 — A bill to safeguard the humane treatment of incarcerated pregnant women by ensuring the presumption of release and prohibiting shackling, restraining, and other inhumane treatment of pregnant detained noncitizens and for other purposes. S.3105 — A Safe Schools Improvement Act. S.Con.Res.21 — A resolution recognizing the significance of equal pay and the disparity in wages paid to Latina women in comparison to men. S.1139 — The Lower Drug Costs for Families Act and S.2563 — Tribal Access to Nutrition Assistance Act of 2023.
When it comes to bipartisan legislation, Senator Cortez Masto falls midway in bipartisan nature with a Lugar Index Score of 0.24229 this indicates that the senator is as bipartisan as she portrays herself to be. The Lugar Center “regard[s] any score above zero as a good score. [they] designate Members who score above zero as ‘Bipartisan Legislators’” (Lugar Center). This means Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has a beautiful ability to expand her legislation across the aisle, both sponsoring and cosponsoring republican policy, while having republicans sponsor and cosponsor her legislation.
Press and Media Coverage:
One of the most important factors to note in relation to press and media coverage is the overall conception that women, specifically women of color, receive the least amount of media coverage, and the most negative media coverage. (Dolan, et. al.) In terms of Catherine Cortez Masto, her online presence by outside sources (not considering her own social media platforms and websites) is poor, if not nonexistent. There are some local news outlets which report on her work, but outside the extraordinary, media coverage is hard to find– especially at the national level. Besides an occasional name drop or a lack of disclosing her identity– labeling ‘Nevada Senator’ without her actual name, Masto is hard to keep track of outside of her own social postings. One such example of name undisclosure, may be seen in the announcement of a recently introduced international railway system. In the Senator’s press release, she boasts on a new train system contracted to be built between Las Vegas and Los Angeles; with notes on the money the senator secured for said project, and its overall plans and benefits. In a media report on the same subject, the LA Times did not mention Senator Catherine Cortez Masto once. Overall these media patterns are not fair or balanced in the slightest compared to other politicians of similar rank, whose only difference is their gender.
Summation and Conclusion:
Democratic Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto displays several of the key identifiable attributes of typical female political candidates. She followed suit from a man in her circle, yet she never foresaw her rise in political leadership. Cortez Masto campaigns on traditional female issues, and uses her empathy and familial values as guiding principles in her work, even placed on traditionally male dominated committees. She steers from the norms with her introduction in politics being through a background in law, and from her high fundraising capacity. This being said, Catherine Cortez Masto’s presence in the Senate serves as an inspiration and model for women and Latino community members, encouraging greater political participation and ambition within these minority groups (Rodriguez).
Works Cited
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“Meet Catherine.” Catherine Cortez Masto for Senate, 7 Mar.
2022, catherinecortezmasto.com/meet-catherine/.
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cnn.com/election/2022/results/nevada/senate.
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and Political Influence. 4th ed., Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2020.
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ag.nv.gov/Bios/Biographies/32_-_Catherine_Cortez_Masto/.
Politico. “Nevada Senate Election Results 2022: Live Map | Midterm Races by County.”
politico.com/2022-election/results/nevada/senate.
Rodriguez, Barbara, and Barbara Rodriguez. “Women Outnumber Men in the Nevada
Legislature. What Difference Does It Make?” The 19th, 1 Feb. 2021,
19thnews.org/2021/02/nevada-legislature-gender-parity/.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. “Cortez Masto Continues Her Fight for Commonsense
Immigration Reform.” 15 Mar. 2023,
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Somos Votantes. somosvotantes.com.
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June 2018,
constitution-unit.com/2018/06/22/gendered-vulnerability-representation-in-united-states-politics/.
The Immigration Hub. “Press.” theimmigrationhub.org/press.
United States Senate. “About - Committees.” cortezmasto.senate.gov/about/committees/.
