Courtesy of the Nevada State AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Susie Martinez, right, looks on as Congresswoman Dina Titus, left, speaks during an AFL-CIO town hall Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021.
Friday, Dec. 17, 2021 | 9:54 p.m.
New congressional district maps that were approved last month by Nevada lawmakers aren’t sitting well with one veteran congresswoman.
“I got totally (screwed) by the Legislature on my district,” Democratic Rep. Dina Titus reportedly said this week during a Nevada AFL-CIO town hall. “I’m sorry to say it like that, but I don’t know any other way to say it.”
The redrawing of the maps, which is done every 10 years on results from the U.S. Census, was approved on party lines by a Democratic majority in the Nevada Senate and Assembly, and signed into law by Gov. Steve Sisolak.
The reshuffling peeled off some of the Democratic voters in Titus’s 1st Congressional District, which she easily won reelection in 2020 by 28.4 percentage points, and put them in more competitive 3rd and 4th districts.
As a result, Democrats created three congressional seats that are vulnerable to Republican wins, Titus said. Rep. Susie Lee only won by 3 percentage points in 2020 in the 3rd Congressional District, and Rep. Steven Horsford’s 4th Congressional District swung Republican in 2014.
Republican leaders are using Titus’ comments as a call for the 71-year-old to retire, although they have been calling on her to retire for some time. The National Republican Congressional Committee put her on their “retirement watch list” last month.
“Dina Titus sounds really worked up. Retiring might be a great way to help her take the edge off,” said Calvin Moore, the Congressional Leadership Fund Communications director in a statement. “Titus and her vulnerable colleagues have a tough decision to make: retire or get voted out anyway next fall.”
The midterm election in November will include more than closely-contested races in the House — if Titus’ prediction rings true.
Nevada Democrats are bracing for an uphill battle in the November midterm election because of President Joe Biden’s low approval numbers and the continued lag in economic growth, according to a forecast from the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter that analyzes elections.
The report labels Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s reelection race likely against former President Donald Trump-backed Republican Adam Laxalt as a “toss-up.” Sisolak’s reelection is also a “toss-up” by the group’s forecast.
