Jacklyn Sheryl “Jacky” Rosen (née Spektor) was born on August 2, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Carol, a homemaker, and Leonard Spektor, a car dealership owner who had served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Her 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’s degree in psychology in 1979. She was the first member of her family to graduate from college. Rosen worked two jobs and took out student loans to make ends meet.

While she attended college, her parents moved to Las Vegas, where she also 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 (now the College of Southern Nevada) and received an associate degree in computing and information technology in 1985. She began to work for Southwest Gas in 1990, and then left to open her own consulting business three years later.

She has served as the president of the Congregation Ner Tamid synagogue, a Jewish Reform synagogue. Rosen led a team that constructed one of the largest solar projects by a non-profit in southern Nevada through a public-private partnership. The solar array helped cut the synagogue’s energy bills by up to 70 percent. Under Rosen’s leadership, the synagogue prioritized programs serving the community through a partnership with Nevadans for the Common Good and provided meals and housing to the homeless through Family Promise.

Rosen declared her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives seat in Nevada's 3rd congressional district in the 2016 elections. Rosen won 60% of the vote in the Democratic Party primary election, and defeated Republican Party nominee Danny Tarkanian in the general election.

Rosen was talked into running for the Senate by former Sen. Harry Reid, who believed she was the best person to challenge Republican incumbent Dean Heller. She was the only freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives who won a seat in the Senate during the 2018 midterm elections, and the only challenger to defeat a Republican incumbent Senator in the 2018 cycle.

Rosen resides in Henderson, Nevada. She is married to Larry Rosen, a radiologist with whom she has one daughter.

Sources: U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen;
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