How Kamala Harris’s oldest friend in the Senate could deliver Nevada for her

Kamala Harris spent only two years in the Senate before she launched her ill-fated run for president in 2019. That meant little time for forging strong relationships on Capitol Hill that many vice presidents enjoy.

But she did come to Washington at the same time as an old friend, Catherine Cortez Masto. And Cortez Masto, who inherited arguably one of the most efficient Democratic machines in the country, might just be Harris’s ace up her sleeve if she is to win the crucial swing state of Nevada and shore up support among Latino voters.

Harris and Cortez Masto actually knew each other long before they came to Washington, going back to the 2008 financial crisis that disproportionately slammed their states because of the subprime mortgage crisis and foreclosures. Harris and Cortez Masto — along with Delaware’s attorney general, Beau Biden — ultimately sued the big banks and wound up winning a $20 billion settlement.

“In general, I think she’s strong, smart and capable,” Cortez Masto told The Independent, when asked about Harris.

Cortez Masto replaced one of the most consequential Senate majority leaders, the late Harry Reid.

“We had her going for lieutenant governor, run for Congress, to run for governor, but she didn't want that,” Reid told me in an interview in 2021 before his death that year. “She wanted to be a Senator.”

When Reid retired, he essentially anointed her. His sprawling political operation — called “the Reid Machine” by both admirers and detractors alike — then delivered Nevada for Hillary Clinton, elected Cortez Masto and flipped the state legislature.

Harris and Cortez Masto also proved to be trailblazers: Harris became only the second Black woman and first Indian-American female Senator, while Cortez