Cortez Masto, Catherine (1964-…), a Democrat from the western state of Nevada, was elected to the United States Senate in 2016. Cortez Masto, whose father was the son of a Mexican immigrant, is the first Hispanic American woman elected to the Senate. She is also the first woman elected to the Senate from Nevada. She had earlier served as Nevada’s attorney general—that is, the state’s chief law officer.
Catherine Marie Cortez was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 29, 1964. In 1986, she earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Nevada, Reno. In 1990, she received a law degree from the Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. She later married Paul Masto, a U.S. Secret Service agent. Masto retired from the agency in early 2007.
After earning her law degree, Cortez Masto worked as an attorney. She later served as chief of staff to Nevada Governor Bob Miller. From 2000 to 2002, she was a prosecutor for the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. In 2002, Cortez Masto became assistant county manager for Clark County, Nevada. In 2006, she was elected Nevada attorney general. In that role, she focused on curbing methamphetamine abuse and prosecuting mortgage fraud. She won reelection in 2010.
In November 2016, Cortez Masto defeated U.S representative Joe Heck in a race for a Senate seat left open by the retirement of Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. Cortez Masto won reelection in 2022.
