No one had a better sense of what it would take to win a fight or greater resolve to see it through, come what may. This tracked with his evolving view of how to win in a purple state like Nevada, which went for George W. Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. Mr. Reid built a machine that focused on the tough work of building coalitions between organized labor and progressive groups and invested in the nuts and bolts of politics, like voter registration. This machine (and the state's changing demographics) helped Democrats register many voters: Around 2002, they were behind Republicans by 7,000 voters; by 2020, Democrats held a 110,000-voter advantage. This helped Democrats win crucial races — not just his own victory in 2010, a terrible midterm year for most other Democrats, but also 2016, when Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won by over 25,000 votes, and 2018, when Senator Jacky Rosen won by about 50,000 votes. Countless remembrances will mention that he was a boxer, but learning to throw a punch seemed less important to his career than learning to take one. Mr. Reid wasn't just unafraid of bad press; he saw it as a necessary part of achieving a goal. If he wasn't taking slings and arrows in service of some greater good, he figured, he wasn't doing his job. When Republicans shut down the government in 2013 to try to defund the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Reid convinced Democrats to hold the line. In control of the House, Republicans began passing bills that funded popular parts of the government and sending them over to the Senate, daring Democrats to block them. They did, and headlines like "Shutdown Blocks Kids With Cancer From Clinical Trials" proliferated. Mr. Reid helped the caucus members steel themselves against the bad press. It passed, and Republicans surrendered, reopening the government after securing almost zero concessions and being dealt a humiliating defeat. This foresight is probably why Social Security remains intact. In 2005, Mr. Reid refused to let Mr. Bush privatize the program at a time when conventional wisdom held that Democrats should either collaborate with Mr. Bush or offer their own plans. Mr. Reid rejected each change the president proposed, recognizing that as soon as the Democrats began considering reforms, they would lose their strategic advantage. He persuaded conservative Democrats like Max Baucus, who had helped write the 2001 Bush tax cuts and was tempted to compromise on Social Security, to hold the line.