Jacky Rosen

Jacky Rosen
From Shul President To Nevada Senator
Jacky Rosen has climbed the leadership ladder quickly. In 2016 she was her Las Vegas-area synagogue’s president, then in 2017 she was elected to Congress, before winning an even bigger national office — being elected senator for Nevada in 2018. She’s the first freshman congresswoman to ever win a Senate seat.
Indeed, Rosen, 61, called her rabbi for advice when in 2016 she started thinking about running for Congress. Her rabbi urged her to go for it. At the time, she was wrapping up a three-year term as synagogue president. He told the Forward that she’d helped bring people together.
Rosen won her Congressional seat and then decided to run for Senate against one-term incumbent Dean Heller. She made a tight race look effortless and won with 50.8% of the vote to Heller’s 44.5%.
A former software developer, she focused her campaign on education and the environment. She has taken a pro-Israel line, and says she would have opposed the 2015 Iran nuclear pact.
After her meteoric rise, Rosen faces a tricky 2019 trying to fulfill her rabbi’s prediction in the U.S. Senate.
— Helen Chernikoff
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.