Nevada senator focuses on abortion in critical November race

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Sandwiched between supporters holding “BANS OFF OUR BODIES” signs and TV cameras on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto portrayed her reelection campaign as a defining moment in a decades-long fight for reproductive freedom, even in pro-abortion rights Nevada.

“I cannot stress this enough. This seat is the pathway to protecting our rights in this country,” she said at a home in the city of Sparks, a Reno suburb. “To preventing a federal abortion ban.”

Cortez Masto is one of several Democrats up for reelection who are pushing reproductive rights to the center of their campaign in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Her race against Republican Adam Laxalt is expected to be among the most competitive in the country, one of a handful that could determine whether Democrats maintain control of the Senate.

As she courts moderate voters, Cortez Masto’s campaign has noted longstanding support for abortion rights in Nevada. She has repeatedly referenced a 1990 statewide vote that codified abortion protections in Nevada’s state constitution, with nearly two-thirds voting in support.

Cortez Masto's messaging represents a shift in strategy for some candidates after decades in which Roe v. Wade was believed to be settled law, said University of Nevada-Las Vegas Professor Rebecca Gill.

"Now that there is this real, significant, palpable threat to access to reproductive health care and abortion, it is certainly possible that some number of that pro-choice majority, may well be motivated to vote on choice issues above other competing concerns.”

Laxalt, Nevada's former attorney general, has mostly stayed on message — and away from the subject of abortion.

He called the court decision a “historic victory for the sanctity of...