Report: Sen. Cortez Masto ‘Didn’t Even Show Up’ to Collect Award from Hispanic Media Group

Embattled Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) “didn’t even show up” last week to collect an award from a top Hispanic media group, despite “often invok[ing] her status as ‘the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate’ in her tight reelection bid against Republican Adam Laxalt, which could determine who controls the Senate next year,” The Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday. 

According to the report:

That title in part prompted El Concilio Hispano, a Hispanic media group that runs a top Latino talk radio program in Nevada, to honor the Democrat at its 2022 Hispanic Heritage Month Leadership Awards. The event’s other three guests of honor—Las Vegas city councilwoman Olivia Diaz, state assemblywoman and Nevada AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Susie Martinez (D.), and Lieutenant Governor Lisa Cano Burkhead (D.), who is also on the ballot this November—accepted their awards in person. Cortez Masto sent a surrogate.

The report noted that the senator’s decision to “ditch the event,” which included several Hispanic community leaders, is a “curious one” considering the election is only a few weeks away. The report states:

Hispanic voters may very well decide Cortez Masto’s political fate—roughly 20 percent of Nevada midterm voters are expected to be Latino, according to a National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials report. Years ago, that stat would have been music to Cortez Masto’s ears. The Democrat in 2016 enjoyed 61 percent of the Latino vote, exit polls show. Six years later, however, Cortez Masto’s Latino support appears to have diminished considerably as many working-class Nevadans sour on President Joe Biden’s economy.

Cortez Masto’s campaign communications director Josh Marcus-Blank reportedly told the Free Beacon four days after the event that the senator missed the event because she was “scheduled to be in Reno,” though he “ignored questions” about whether her trip was scheduled before she received an invitation.

Cortez Masto has maintained her “low-key” leadership style throughout her campaign — so much so that Nevada Independent CEO Jon Ralston last month accused her of “refusing to let [his] reporters ask her about her record.” In contrast, Laxalt has been “aggressively courting Latino voters,” a move which his campaign hopes will help secure the former Nevada attorney general a victory in November.