Catherine Cortez Masto

Catherine Marie Cortez Masto is an American lawyer and politician. She has been serving as the senior United States senator from Nevada since 2017. Prior to her senatorial career, Cortez Masto served as the 32nd attorney general of Nevada from 2007 to 2015. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno and Gonzaga University School of Law. Cortez Masto worked as a civil attorney in Las Vegas for four years and as a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. for two years. In 2016, she narrowly defeated Republican Joe Heck in the United States Senate election, becoming the first woman elected to represent Nevada in the Senate and the first Latina to hold the position.