LAS VEGAS (AP) — Harry Reid may no longer lead Senate Democrats in Washington, but the political machine he built in Nevada has Republicans on the run.
Democrats romped up and down the state in the midterms. They ousted Republican Sen. Dean Heller, won races for governor and lieutenant governor and expanded their state legislative majorities.
The shellacking was the culmination of a long-term plan to shift a battleground into the Democratic column. Democrats elsewhere will work to replicate Nevada for years to come. Republicans were humbled.
The political mastermind behind the Democrats' ascendency is 78-year-old Harry Reid, the soft-spoken former Senate majority leader who served for decades in Washington before his retirement last year. Despite being treated for pancreatic cancer, Reid has remained active in Nevada politics.
