Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-NV) husband, Paul Masto, reportedly was awarded about $27,000 worth of pandemic rental income in fiscal year 2022.

Paul Masto’s receipt of pandemic funds raises questions of whether a U.S. senator’s family member should be able to cash in while a spouse is impacting federal policy. 

The pandemic rental aid came in the form of three separate payments from the local county via CARES Housing Assistance program (CHAP), Clark County confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The program gives federal handouts through counties to landlords for eligible Nevada tenants. Both the tenant and landlord must apply for the CHAP funds.
Cortez Masto’s financial disclosure, which reportedly lists the income under rental property, reveals a joint ownership earned “between $15,001 to $50,000 in income from a rental property,” the Journal reported. 
In 2018, Sen. Cortez Masto had an estimated net worth of $4,601,020 with $1,125,501 in real estate holdings.

Cortez Masto’s husband has a notable background. He was former assistant special agent in the Secret Services office in Las Vegas. From 2007 to 2020, Paul Masto owned a private security company, Universal Security Specialists, before it was dissolved in 2020 when Joe Biden become president-elect.

Breitbart News reported that from 2019 to 2020, Universal Security Specialists received its only income from Biden For President, totaling over $24,000, according to FEC filings.

Paul Masto’s relationship with the Biden family is even deeper. Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop from 2010 reveal that he and Paul Masto were friends and even discussed Masto’s security company together. At the time, Joe Biden was vice president. Paul Masto called Hunter his “Buddy” and asked if Hunter knew anyone who needed his security services in an email titled, “Hi Hunter.”

Masto’s relationship with the Biden family is notable because Sen. Cortez Masto has distanced herself from President Joe Biden on the campaign trail. The senator is trying to hold off defeat by Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Adam Laxalt in the 2020 midterm primary. Polling shows Laxalt leads Cortez Masto by a small margin (46.7 – 44.3 percent).

An NBC News source close to the incumbent’s campaign told the publication that Cortez Masto does not want to campaign with Biden because “She wants to keep the focus on her Republican opponent. The senator has refused to answer if she will campaign with Biden, a video obtained by the Daily Caller shows.

Her refusal to campaign with Biden could be due to the president’s underwater polling in Nevada. Civiqs polling shows Biden is 14 points underwater in the state (38 approve – 54 disapprove). Nationwide, Biden’s net approval rating dropped a full seven points in one week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed Tuesday.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.