The government shutdown has emerged as an issue in Republican Sen. Dean Heller’s re-election bid and a challenge from Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.

The Capitol is seen on the first day of a government shutdown after a divided Senate rejected a funding measure, in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Library of Congress post a sign letting people know is closed due the shut down of the government on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Capitol Rotunda is seen with the statue of George Washington at left on the first day of a government shutdown as quarreling politicians in Washington failed to pass a budget, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A closure sign stands outside of the Library of Congress in Washington on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON — Political acrimony spilled over into the Nevada Senate race Saturday after President Donald Trump and congressional leaders failed to reach a negotiated solution to keep federal offices open.

The government shutdown has emerged as an issue in Republican Sen. Dean Heller’s re-election bid and a challenge from Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.

“This is not a complicated topic,” said Heller, who is considered the most vulnerable Republican running for re-election. “Any Nevadan knows what’s right and what’s wrong. I have voted to keep this government open, and she has voted to close it.”

A Rosen campaign spokesman said Heller’s attack was a desperate attempt at misdirection. Rosen’s campaign is airing a digital advertisement with a video of Heller saying in August: “There will be no excuses and no one else’s fault but the Republican Party if this government does shut down.”

Heller said his comments in the ad were taken out of context, and were directed at Trump’s threatened government shutdown in September if Congress failed to fund a border wall.

Las Vegas lawyer Danny Tarkanian, who is challenging Heller in the Republican primary, is also using the video on the senator’s comments on a shutdown, which were originally aired in an NBC interview.

The Nevada spat occurred as Congress returned for a rare session Saturday and engaged in finger-pointing over the shutdown that began when Senate Democrats, seeking a legislative fix for 800,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, blocked a stopgap spending bill.

No resolution

Democrats are seeking a legislative reinstatement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protections. Nevada’s senators broke along party lines in the vote where Republicans fell short of the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., the first Latina to serve in the Senate, said providing DACA waivers was crucial for immigrants nationally and in Nevada who grew up in the United States and have gone on to become respected members of their communities.

Trump ended DACA last year, but gave Congress until March to provide a legislative fix. But he and Republicans have also demanded increased funds for border security and a wall, an end to the diversity visa lottery and a reduction in chain migration, the immigration system giving preference to family unification.

A meeting Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., before the midnight Senate deadline produced no resolution.

“Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O,” Schumer said during a Senate floor speech Saturday. “Republican leaders refuse to move ahead without President Trump, and President Trump is so mercurial it’s been impossible to get him to agree to anything.”

The Trump administration and Republicans launched a full-throated attack on Schumer.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Democrats “have listened to the most extreme elements in their political party and shut down the government over an unrelated immigration issue.”

Republicans accused Democrats of holding the government hostage at the expense of the military and vulnerable children.

Senate race acrimony

The oral fisticuffs carried over to the U.S. Senate race involving Nevada. Heller, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said the shutdown would be a campaign issue because Rosen voted with Democrats to stop critical funding.

“It’s selfish on the part of the Democrats. I think it selfish and unpatriotic,” said Heller, who then singled out Rosen. “There is nothing in the bill that she is opposed to, yet she still votes to shut this government down.”

Rosen has accused Republicans of using reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which provides health coverage for 9 million children including 40,000 in Nevada, as a “political pawn” by tacking it onto the stopgap spending bill.

A spokesman for her campaign in Las Vegas said Rosen has backed efforts to reauthorize CHIP and to provide a legislative remedy for the Dreamers.

Trump spoke Saturday with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., about the shutdown and negotiations with Democrats on DACA and the spending bill, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

She said the president would not give in to the Democrats’ demands and include immigration reform as a condition for ending the shutdown.

“The president will not negotiate on immigration reform until Democrats stop playing games and reopen the government,” Sanders said.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.