Congresswoman Jacky Rosen sits behind a desk in a Nevada Democratic Party campaign field office, explaining why she wants—needs, rather—to get elected to the Senate. The headquarters has a sparse but hopeful vibe: a hand-lettered welcome message on a dry-erase board, folding tables, makeshift murals, volunteers with clipboards. A few doors down from the space, located in an East Las Vegas shopping plaza: a benefits center for low-income families, a smoke shop with signs hawking “glass pipes,” “jewelry,” and the “best prices on male enhancement pills.”

It’s a short drive and a world away from the gilded excesses of the Vegas Strip. But Rosen, a freshman member of the House who’s challenging Republican Senator Dean Heller in Nevada, doesn’t have to set foot in a casino to know the stakes are high.

“Number-one race in the country,” she says.

The calm that Rosen exudes—on a day Glamour shadows her on the campaign trail—doesn’t just stand in contrast with the jangling frenzy of the Strip: It’s also at odds with the intense national focus on her fight to defeat Heller, a member of the GOP’s tiny 51-seat Senate majority and the only Republican senator seeking reelection in a state Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Knocking Heller out is key to the Democrats’ attempt to wrest control of Washington from Republicans and slow—or derail—policies Rosen and the Democrats say are hurtful to women: "Planned Parenthood is at stake," she says, rattling off a roster of areas where she feels Republicans are doing damage to women. "Supreme Court, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, civil rights…our health care, our environment, just—the list goes on and on, right?”

Rep. Jacky Rosen (D–Nev.) speaks to Glamour about her run for U.S. Senate. Ronda Churchill

In a year that’s seen a record number of women score nominations for public office—some by way of firebrand, hard-left-wing (or right) platforms and viral videos—Rosen, as a person and a candidate, is a bit more reserved than some of her counterparts. She’s pleasant and purposeful in demeanor and understated in dress, down to her sensible beige pumps.

“I think it's going great, actually. I feel great,” she tells Glamour. “I'm feeling a lot of enthusiasm every place that I go. People are excited across the board.”

Asked if she feels any sense from voters that it falls to women like her to “save” the country, she makes even that grandiose proposition seem like no big deal: “I think, deep down, women know that we are the saviors of our families, right? [We're] oftentimes the glue of our friendships, of our family units, of our social networks,” nothing against the men, of course, Rosen says. “I don't think that's [news to] any woman throughout history, right?”