Nevada's most competitive House seat is staying Democratic. The Associated Press declared Rep. Susie Lee the winner of Nevada's 3rd Congressional District at 4:04 a.m. EST on Wednesday, November 4, defeating Republican Marty O'Donnell and winning a fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. With 85.52 percent of precincts reporting — 248 of 290 — the AP's results tally put Lee on 146,863 votes to O'Donnell's 95,845. Nevada's own unofficial returns, in the Secretary of State snapshot generated at 3:04 a.m. Pacific, told the same story in percentages: Lee 59.14 percent, O'Donnell 38.60 percent, a lead of 51,018 votes.
Source: Associated Press — U.S. House District 3, Nevada, election results (Nov. 4, 2026)
A fifth term in the district Trump carried
The size of the win is what makes it stand out. The AP noted that Lee's district — which takes in part of metro Las Vegas and rural Clark County — is Nevada's most competitive, and that President Donald Trump won it in 2024. The Nevadan's pre-results guide put numbers on that history: Trump carried the district by about one point in 2024 even as Lee, first elected in 2018, held it by under three points, 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent against Drew Johnson. This time there was no late-night cliffhanger: a district that was decided by single digits two years ago broke by more than 20 points, in a midterm night that was breaking Democratic across Nevada and the country.
The campaign: a self-described centrist against a famous composer
Lee campaigned as a moderate, the AP reported, highlighting her bipartisan record — The Nevadan noted she describes herself as a centrist Democrat, campaigned on affordability and pushing back on the Trump administration, and has been named the most bipartisan lawmaker by the Common Ground Committee. O'Donnell is a retired composer best known for his work on the Halo video game series; he was endorsed by Trump in the Republican primary and campaigned, in The Nevadan's summary, on restoring the American Dream, securing the border and building a resilient economy. Early in October, The Cook Political Report had shifted the seat from lean Democrat to likely Democrat — a rating the final margin more than justified.
Money followed the same direction
Fundraising through October 14 told a similar story, according to the FTP Advocacy elections database: Lee led fundraising by 3.8 to 1, a gap short of the 5-to-1 level the database treats as dominant, while O'Donnell reported $1.56 million raised from donors plus $3.26 million of his own money. Self-funding bought the challenger a real campaign in an expensive Las Vegas media market, but it did not close the incumbent's advantage — on the night, Lee outran her 2024 margin several times over.
Nevada's long night, and why the numbers will still move
Nevada counts slowly by design, and election night there ran to the wire: the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, via Vegas Daily Wire's live coverage, that the state's first results only started coming in after the last voters in line finished casting ballots at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The totals in this story are unofficial and will keep changing — Nevada counts mail ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and arrive in the following days, and county canvasses and certification come after that. The direction, however, was consistent across every snapshot: in the Secretary of State's 3:04 a.m. release, Democrats led all four of Nevada's U.S. House races and all six statewide executive offices, and KTNV reported Titus, Lee and Horsford re-elected, with Teresa Benitez-Thompson projected to win the 2nd District.
Control of the U.S. House is decided seat by seat, and NV-03 was on every national list of seats Republicans needed to contest seriously — a district their own president carried in 2024. A 20-point Democratic hold there removes one of the GOP's clearest pickup paths and helps explain the scale of the Democratic House night nationally. For Clark County's Punjabi and South Asian families — concentrated in the Las Vegas valley the district covers in part, and along the I-15 trucking corridor that runs through it — Lee remains the House member whose office handles federal casework, from immigration files to veterans' and Social Security issues, for another two years.
The district and the job
Nevada's 3rd District covers part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area — including communities in the southern and western valley — together with rural Clark County. Its representative sits in a House where health care, housing costs, water and growth in the desert Southwest, and immigration enforcement are live federal questions for exactly the mix of suburban families, service workers, small-business owners and long-haul drivers who live there. Lee was first elected in 2018 and has now won the seat five times in a row.
What the result does not yet settle
An AP race call is a news organisation's determination, not a certification: the figures remain unofficial until Nevada completes its canvass. O'Donnell had not, in the reports available on Wednesday morning, issued a concession statement that Awaaz Punjab could verify, and the remaining mail ballots will narrow or widen the final margin at the edges. None of that changes the call itself — with about 86 percent of precincts reporting and a 51,018-vote lead, the outstanding ballots are not numerous enough to reverse the outcome the AP projected.
What happens next
Counting continues in Clark County and across Nevada as postmarked mail ballots arrive in the coming days, followed by the county canvasses and statewide certification. The winner takes office in January, when the new Congress convenes and the certified results are in place. Lee's fifth term will run in a House whose overall control was being decided by the same night's results across the country — and in a Nevada delegation that, on the unofficial returns, will arrive in Washington entirely Democratic.