Jacky Rosen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2022 | |
| United States Senator fromNevada | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2019 Serving with Catherine Cortez Masto | |
| Preceded by | Dean Heller |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNevada's3rd district | |
| In office January 3, 2017 – January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Joe Heck |
| Succeeded by | Susie Lee |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jacklyn Sheryl Spektor (1957-08-02)August 2, 1957 (age 68) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Lloyd Dean Neher (divorced) |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | University of Minnesota (BA) Clark County Community College (AAS) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Senate website Campaign website |
Jacklyn Sheryl Rosen (néeSpektor; born August 2, 1957) is an American politician serving as thejuniorUnited States senator fromNevada since 2019. A member of theDemocratic Party, she was theU.S. representative forNevada's 3rd congressional district from 2017 to 2019.
Rosen was elected to the Senate in2018, defeatingRepublican incumbentDean Heller with 50.4% of the vote.[1] Rosen wasreelected in 2024, defeating Republican nomineeSam Brown.
Rosen was born on August 2, 1957, inChicago,Illinois, to Carol, ahomemaker,[2][3][4] and Leonard Spektor, acar dealership owner who had served in theU.S. Army during theKorean War.[3] Rosen's mother was ofIrish,German, andAustrian descent, and her father's family were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria.[5]
Rosen attended theUniversity of Minnesota and graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree inpsychology in 1979.[6] While she was in college, her parents moved toLas Vegas, where Rosen moved after graduating. She took a job withSumma Corporation and worked summers as a waitress atCaesars Palace throughout the 1980s. While working for Summa, she attendedClark County Community College (College of Southern Nevada) and received anassociate degree in computing and information technology in 1985.[6] She began working forSouthwest Gas from 1990 to 1993.[7]
Rosen has touted her efforts to "build a business", but aReno Gazette-Journal review of public records found no evidence that she held a state or local business license. According to Rosen, she ran a company between 1993 and 2002, of which she was the only employee. Her business served two main clients, Southwest Gas, which was Rosen's former employer, and Radiology Specialists, a Las Vegas-based physician group that employed Rosen's husband.[8]
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A formercomputer programmer with no political experience at the time, Rosen was asked byU.S. Senate Minority LeaderHarry Reid, also from Nevada, to run in the2016 election for theU.S. House seat being vacated by RepublicanJoe Heck.[9] On January 26, she declared her candidacy forNevada's 3rd congressional district.[10] Rosen won 60% of the vote in the Democraticprimary election[11] and narrowly[9] defeatedRepublican nomineeDanny Tarkanian in the general election.[12] She was sworn into office on January 3, 2017.
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Rosen was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2018, defeating one-term Republican senatorDean Heller to become the junior senator from Nevada. Her candidacy, announced on July 5, 2017, was endorsed by formerPresidentBarack Obama[18] and formerVice PresidentJoe Biden.[9] During the campaign, Rosen emphasized her support for theAffordable Care Act (Obamacare) and criticized Heller's vote to repeal it in 2017.[19][20] At the time, Rosen voted in the U.S. House against Republicans' attempts to repeal Obamacare.[20]
Rosen defeated Heller, 50.4% to 45.4%. Heller carried 15 of Nevada's 17 county-level jurisdictions, but Rosen carried the state's two largest,Clark (home to Las Vegas) andWashoe (home toReno). She won Clark County by over 92,000 votes, almost double her statewide margin of more than 48,900 votes.[21]
Rosen was one of only two non-incumbent Democrats, alongsideKyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to win election to the Senate in 2018. She is also the 37th freshman member of the U.S. House to win a Senate seat and the first woman to do so.[22]
Rosen was reelected in 2024, defeating Republican nomineeSam Brown, a retiredU.S. Army captain, 48% to 46%.[23]
Rosen was on Capitol Hill for the2021 United States Electoral College vote count when supporters ofPresident Donald Trumpstormed the U.S. Capitol. At the time, she was in theRussell Senate Office Building before being evacuated to a secure, undisclosed location. She tweeted during the attack, calling the event "reprehensible" and writing, "It's time for us as a nation to come together and denounce hate and violence."[24]
In November 2025, Rosen became one of eight Democrats who voted to end thefederal government shutdown.[25]
Rosen has been described as aliberal Democrat at times and as amoderate at others.[26][27][28] As of April 2020,FiveThirtyEight found that Rosen's votes aligned with President Trump's legislative positions about 36% of the time.[29] TheAmerican Conservative Union gave her a 5% lifetime conservative rating in 2020.[30] In 2023, the Lugar Center ranked Rosen sixth among senators for bipartisanship.[31]
Rosen supportsabortion rights and has been endorsed byNARAL Pro-Choice America.[32]
In 2019, Rosen andJames Lankford co-founded the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. In 2024, she introduced the Countering Antisemitism Act to establish an interagency task force to counter antisemitism. She noted "skyrocketing antisemitism in the United States and the world" after theOctober 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.[33]
In April 2019, Rosen was one of 34 senators to have signed a letter to PresidentDonald Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate conditions insideCentral America." The letter asserted that Trump had "consistently expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since becoming president and was "personally undermining efforts to promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" by preventing Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the U.S. by helping to improve conditions in those countries.[34]
According toOpenSecrets, Rosen's largest donor is theAmerican Israeli Public Affairs Committee, which has donated over $1 million.[35] Rosen met Israeli PMBenjamin Netanyahu and Foreign MinisterGideon Sa'ar in May 2025 amidst the Gaza war.[36] Rosen was one of the 23 Democratic Senators, a minority of Senate Democrats, who voted for and supported arms sales to Israel amidst theGaza starvation in August 2025.[37] Rosen andTim Scott introduced the Antisemitism Awareness Act in the Senate in February 2025 which directs the Department of Education to use theInternational Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism when investigating antisemitic acts on campus. CongressmenMike Lawler andJosh Gottheimer are leading companion legislation in theHouse of Representatives.[38][39] Critics, such as SenatorBernie Sanders, say that the Act would undermine free speech and stifle criticism against Israel.[40]
Rosen supports anassault weapons ban.[27]
Rosen supports theAffordable Care Act (Obamacare) and its provisions that prevent patients from being denied insurance or charged more due to age or a preexisting condition. She supports allowing citizens to buy intoMedicaid as an alternative option to competing with private insurance companies.[41][42]
In January 2019, during the2018-2019 government shutdown, Rosen was one of 34 senators to sign a letter toFood and Drugs CommissionerScott Gottlieb recognizing theFDA's efforts to address the effect of the shutdown on the public health and employees while remaining alarmed "that the continued shutdown will result in increasingly harmful effects on the agency's employees and the safety and security of the nation's food and medical products."[43]
In February 2019, Rosen was one of 11 senators to sign a letter toinsulin manufacturesEli Lilly and Company,Novo Nordisk, andSanofi over increased insulin prices, saying the increases kept patients from receiving "access to the life-saving medications they need."[44]
In August 2019, Rosen was one of 19 senators to sign a letter toTreasury SecretarySteve Mnuchin andHealth and Human Services SecretaryAlex Azar requesting data from theTrump administration in order to help states and Congress understand the potential consequences if theTexas v. United States Affordable Care Act lawsuit prevailed in courts. They wrote that an overhaul of the health care system would form "an enormous hole in the pocketbooks of the people we serve as well as wreck state budgets".[45]
In April 2019, Rosen was one of 41 senators to have signed a bipartisan letter to the housing subcommittee praising theDepartment of Housing and Urban Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide education, training, and financial support to local community development corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after decades of successful economic and community development." The senators wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.[46]
Rosen supports "comprehensive immigration reform" but does not believe theImmigration and Customs Enforcement agency should be abolished.[27]
In 2025, Rosen was one of 12 Senate Democrats who joined all Republicans to vote for theLaken Riley Act.[47]
In 2018, Rosen was one of three U.S. House Democrats to break with their party and vote to make individual tax cuts permanent.[48] She supports a$15 hourlyminimum wage.[27]
Rosen opposed JudgeAdeel A. Mangi's nomination to theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, reportedly "based on objections raised by local law enforcement groups".[49]
In 2025, Rosen co-sponsored the No Tax on Tips Act, which received unanimous consent in the Senate.[50]
Rosen resides inHenderson, Nevada, with her husband.[7] They have a daughter.[51] Before entering politics, she served as the president of the Congregation Ner Tamid synagogue, aReform Jewish synagogue in Henderson.[7][52] She has cited the philosophy oftikkun olam as a key part of her decision to enter politics.[53]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jacky Rosen | 14,219 | 62.2% | |
| Democratic | Jesse Sbaih | 2,928 | 12.8% | |
| Democratic | Barry Michaels | 2,218 | 9.7% | |
| Democratic | Steven Schiffman | 1,237 | 5.4% | |
| Democratic | Alex Singer | 1,207 | 5.3% | |
| Democratic | Neil Waite | 1,055 | 4.6% | |
Source:[54]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jacky Rosen | 146,869 | 47.2% | |||
| Republican | Danny Tarkanian | 142,926 | 46.0% | |||
| Independent American | Warren Markowitz | 11,602 | 3.7 % | |||
| Independent | David Goossen | 9,566 | 3.1% | |||
| Total votes | 310,963 | 100.0 | ||||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | ||||||
Source:[55]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jacky Rosen | 110,530 | 77.1% | |
| None of These Candidates | None of These Candidates | 10,070 | 7.0% | |
| Democratic | David Knight | 6,340 | 4.4% | |
| Democratic | Allen Rheinhart | 4,774 | 3.3% | |
| Democratic | Jesse Sbaih | 4,538 | 3.2% | |
| Democratic | Bobby Mahendra | 3,833 | 2.7% | |
| Democratic | Danny Burleigh | 3,244 | 2.3% | |
Source:[56]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jacky Rosen | 490,071 | 50.41% | |||
| Republican | Dean Heller (incumbent) | 441,202 | 45.38% | |||
| None of These Candidates | 15,303 | 1.57% | ||||
| Independent | Barry Michaels | 9,269 | 0.95% | |||
| Libertarian | Tim Hagan | 9,196 | 0.95% | |||
| Independent American | Kamau Bakari | 7,091 | 0.73% | |||
| Total votes | 972,132 | 100.0 | ||||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | ||||||
Source:[57]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jacky Rosen (incumbent) | 701,105 | 47.87% | |
| Republican | Sam Brown | 677,046 | 46.22% | |
| None of These Candidates | 44,380 | 3.03% | ||
| Independent American | Janine Hansen | 21,316 | 1.46% | |
| Libertarian | Chris Cunningham | 20,881 | 1.43% | |
| Total votes | 1,464,728 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
Source:[58]
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Data from Wikidata| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNevada's 3rd congressional district 2017–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromNevada (Class 1) 2018,2024 | Most recent |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | United States Senator (Class 1) from Nevada 2019–present Served alongside:Catherine Cortez Masto | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas United States Senator fromMissouri | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator fromNevada since January 3, 2019 | Succeeded byas United States Senator fromNorth Dakota |
| Preceded by | United States senators by seniority 67th | Succeeded by |
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| Class 3 | ||
| Territorial (1861–1864) |
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| One at-large seat (1864–1983) |
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| Districts (1983–present) (3rd district established in 2003) (4th district established in 2013) |
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| Other | |
