How PACs Shaped Nevada's Political Battlefield in 2024
In Nevada’s 2024 election cycle, Political Action Committees (PACs), super PACs, and dark money groups spent approximately $205–210 million in the battleground state, nearly doubling the expenditure seen in the 2020 election. This surge of funds targeted the high-stakes U.S. Senate race between Democrat Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown, as well as state legislative contests, where Republicans aimed to block a Democratic supermajority capable of overriding Gov. Joe Lombardo’s (R) vetoes.
In the fiercely contested Senate race, WinSenate PAC, a Democratic super PAC, led all PACs with a commanding $41.5 million in spending, fueling advertisements that highlighted Sen. Rosen’s (D) bipartisan work on lowering prescription drug costs and supporting veterans. On the Republican side, the National Republican Senatorial Committee invested $10.7 million in anti-Rosen ads, emphasizing economic struggles and border security concerns. The Republican super PAC Senate Leadership Fund added $6 million for late-cycle ads promoting Brown’s (R) veteran credentials. These efforts fell well short against Sen. Rosen’s incumbency and robust financial advantage. The race also experienced voter fragmentation due to the presence of the Independent American and Libertarian parties.
In Nevada’s state legislative races, Better Nevada and Nevada Way PACs, aligned with Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), invested approximately $190,000 in Republican candidates, while Americans for Prosperity Action spent $6.2 million on anti-regulation ads promoting economic freedom and energy independence, targeting suburban independents in competitive legislative districts. These efforts helped prevent Democrats from gaining a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature, despite Democrats’ 3:1 spending advantage, driven by $15 million in union contributions, $3.8 million from legislator-affiliated PACs, and $754,000 from the trial lawyers’ group Citizens for Justice.
Dark money totaled around $50-$60 million in 2024. Approximately $30 million was raised for ballot measures came from dark money, including $18 million from Article IV for the failed Question 3 (ranked-choice voting) and over $6 million from groups like the Advocacy Action Fund and Tides Foundation for the successful abortion rights initiative.
The flood of funding from PACs, super PACs, and dark money groups significantly shaped Nevada’s 2024 election results and laid the groundwork for the 2025 legislative agenda, highlighting the persistent power of outside money in the state’s battleground politics.
Data sourced from opensecrets.org/states/NV
