The 2012 United States Senate election in Nevada was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and the 2012 presidential election. The primary election was held June 12, 2012. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dean Heller, who was appointed to his seat in May 2011 following the resignation of Senator John Ensign, was narrowly elected to his first full term over Representative Shelley Berkley, despite President Barack Obama carrying the state by 6.7% in the concurrent presidential election. As a result, Heller became the only Republican Senate candidate in 2012 to win in a state that was lost by the Republican presidential candidate. With a margin of 1.2%, this election was the second-closest race of the 2012 Senate election cycle, behind only the election in North Dakota. , this is the last time that Republicans won a U.S. Senate election in Nevada.

Background

Ensign was reelected to the United States Senate in 2006 against Jack Carter, son of former president Jimmy Carter, by a margin of 55–41%. His reelection campaign was expected to be complicated after it was revealed in 2009 that he had been involved in an extramarital affair with the wife of one of his campaign staffers, allegedly made payments to the woman's family and arranged work for her husband to cover himself. The Senate Ethics Committee was to investigate Ensign, and his poll numbers declined significantly. There was speculation that he might resign before the election, but he initially said he would run for reelection. On March 7, 2011, Ensign announced that he would not seek reelection, and on April 22, he announced that he would resign effective May 3. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval appointed U.S. Representative Dean Heller to fill the vacancy created by Ensign's resignation. Heller took office on May 9, 2011.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominated

Eliminated in primary

Declined

Polling

Primary Appointment preference Primaries with Ensign

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominated

Eliminated in primary

Withdrew

Polling

Results

[Results by county:

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General election

Candidates

Debates

The first Berkley-Heller debate was on September 27, 2012. They met again in Las Vegas on October 11 and on Jon Ralston's "Face to Face" program on October 15. External links

Fundraising

Top contributors

Top industries

Predictions

Polling

Shelly Berkley vs. Dean Heller with John Ensign

Results

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Heller won 2 of 4 congressional districts.