Jacklyn Sheryl Rosen (née Spektor; born August 2, 1957) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Nevada since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the U.S. representative for Nevada's 3rd congressional district from 2017 to 2019.
Rosen was first elected to Congress in 2016 with 47.2% of the vote. She was elected to the Senate in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Dean Heller with 50.4% of the vote. Rosen was reelected in 2024 with 47.9% of the vote.
Rosen was born on August 2, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois, to Carol, a homemaker, and Leonard Spektor, a car dealership owner who had served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Rosen's mother was of Irish, German, and Austrian descent, and her father's family were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Austria.
Rosen attended the University of Minnesota and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology in 1979. While she was in college, her parents moved to Las Vegas, where Rosen moved after graduating. She took a job with Summa Corporation and worked summers as a waitress at Caesars Palace throughout the 1980s. While working for Summa, she attended Clark County Community College (College of Southern Nevada) and received an associate degree in computing and information technology in 1985. She began working for Southwest Gas from 1990 to 1993.
Rosen has touted her efforts to "build a business", but a Reno Gazette-Journal review of public records found no evidence that she held a state or local business license. According to Rosen, she ran a company between 1993 and 2002, of which she was the only employee. Her business served two main clients, Southwest Gas, which was Rosen's former employer, and Radiology Specialists, a Las Vegas-based physician group that employed Rosen's husband.
A former computer programmer with no political experience at the time, Rosen was asked by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, also from Nevada, to run in the 2016 election for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Republican Joe Heck. On January 26, she declared her candidacy for Nevada's 3rd congressional district. Rosen won 60% of the vote in the Democratic primary election and narrowly defeated Republican nominee Danny Tarkanian in the general election. She was sworn into office on January 3, 2017.
Subcommittee on Military Personnel
Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Subcommittee on Research and Technology
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues
Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Rosen was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2018, defeating one-term Republican senator Dean Heller to become the junior senator from Nevada. Her candidacy, announced on July 5, 2017, was endorsed by former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden. During the campaign, Rosen emphasized her support for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and criticized Heller's vote to repeal it in 2017. At the time, Rosen voted in the U.S. House against Republicans' attempts to repeal Obamacare.
Rosen defeated Heller, 50.4% to 45.4%. Heller carried 15 of Nevada's 17 county-level jurisdictions, but Rosen carried the state's two largest, Clark (home to Las Vegas) and Washoe (home to Reno). She won Clark County by over 92,000 votes, almost double her statewide margin of more than 48,900 votes.
Rosen was one of only two non-incumbent Democrats, alongside Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to win election to the Senate in 2018. She is also the 37th freshman member of the U.S. House to win a Senate seat and the first woman to do so.
Rosen was reelected in 2024, defeating Republican nominee Sam Brown, a retired U.S. Army captain, 48% to 46%.
Rosen was on Capitol Hill for the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. At the time, she was in the Russell Senate Office Building before being evacuated to a secure, undisclosed location. She tweeted during the attack, calling the event "reprehensible" and writing, "It's time for us as a nation to come together and denounce hate and violence."