Live Results: Catherine Cortez Masto defeats Adam Laxalt in Nevada's US Senate election, winning the chamber for the Democrats

• Democratic US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeats Republican Adam Laxalt in Nevada.
• With Cortez Masto's win, Democrats maintain control of the US Senate.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt to win Nevada's US senate election.

The victory gave Democrats 50 US Senate seats in the next congressional session — enough to again secure a majority even with Georgia's US Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker still undecided.

Nevada's US Senate candidates

Cortez Masto is no stranger to close contests. She led Senate Democrats' campaign arm as the party eeked out a tie-breaking majority following Warnock and Jon Ossoff's narrow wins in the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs. A protégé of the late-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Cortez Masto made history as the first Latina elected to the US Senate when she succeeded Reid in 2017.

Laxalt hails from Nevada political royalty. His grandfather, Paul Laxalt, was both a governor and a US senator. It was also revealed in 2013 that he is the son of Pete Domenici, a US senator from New Mexico. Cortez Masto's campaign has painted Laxalt as out of touch because of his background, most notably in an ad that echoed HBO's "Succession."

Laxalt has held statewide office before as state attorney general, but that wasn't enough to prevent Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak from defeating Laxalt in 2018 to become the state's first Democratic governor in over two decades. Laxalt, as a top Trump campaign official, led unsuccessful post-election challenges in the state and has tried to spark doubts about the current race.

A victory here for the GOP could have very well decided the majority, ending the longest-ever evenly split Senate. But Cortez Masto managed to hold on, blocking the GOP's path to 51 seats.

Voting history in Nevada

Democrats have controlled at least one of the state's two Senate seats since Reid's election in 1986. Sen. Jacky Rosen's ouster of Republican incumbent Dean Heller in 2018 gave the party total control for the first time since 2000.

Nevada has been viewed as a swing state in presidential elections, but experts have worried that the state's changing demographics would put it further out of reach for the GOP. Former President Donald Trump's inroads with Latino voters more broadly has squelched some of those concerns.

The money race

According to OpenSecrets, Cortez Masto has raised more than $52.8 million, spent $46.6 million, and has roughly $6.3 million on hand, as of October 19. Laxalt has raised $15.5 million, spent $12.3 million, and has roughly $3.2 million on hand, as of October 19.

Spending by super PACs, party committees, and other organizations advocating for or against these candidates has been massive, per OpenSecrets — about $128.3 million combined, through November 8. In all, 15 different outside groups spent at least $1 million on this race — a few into the eight-figure range.

What experts say

The race between Cortez Masto and Laxalt was unanimously rated as a "toss-up" by Inside Elections, The Cook Political Report, and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.