Biden sets his sights on Nevada’s primary, with November also high on his mind
LAS VEGAS– President Joe Biden cast for votes Sunday in Nevada, where primaries are underway for the West’s first to feature early and absentee voting. But the Democrat and his team are also using the visit to shore up support for the general election in November.
The president last visited Nevada in December, when he highlighted more than $8 billion in federal money for national passenger rail projects. On Sunday, Biden planned to rally voters in the city’s majority Black Historic Westside and attend a campaign fundraiser.
Michael Tyler, a spokesman for Biden’s reelection campaign, said the president will encourage supporters to vote in Tuesday’s primaries and help build momentum for the fall, in what will be a rematch of the 2020 contest against Republican Donald Trump.
In Tuesday’s primaries, Biden will face only token opposition from author Marianne Williamson and a few relatively unknown challengers. He won Nevada in November 2020 by less than 3 percentage points.
The state known largely for its casino and hospitality industries is synonymous with split-ticket, hard-to-predict outcomes. It has a transient working-class population and large Latino, Filipino and Chinese American and Black communities. Nevada has a large rural-urban divide, with more than 88% of active registered voters — and much of the political power — in its two most populous counties, including the Las Vegas and Reno metro areas.
In 2022, Democrats successfully defended their Senate seat and lost the governor’s office. The six constitutional officers elected statewide are evenly split among Democrats and Republicans.
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto’s narrow victory helped the Democratic party maintain control of the Senate for the remainder of Biden’s current term.
Working in Biden’s favor this year is the massive Democratic operation set up by the late Senator Harry Reid. The “Reid Machine” has trained operatives and retained organizers for years, and is partly why, despite Nevada’s status as a purple state, Democrats have won every presidential election here since 2008.
But early signs show that Biden can make up more ground than in previous races. Voters are largely dissatisfied with the likely rematch between Biden and Trump. A November New York Times/Siena poll put Biden’s approval rating in Nevada at 36%.
“I know from my re-election that the issues that matter to Nevadans are still those kitchen table issues,” Cortez Masto said in an interview.
Biden has built his re-election campaign around the theme that Trump poses a serious threat to American democracy and its fundamental values. The president has also defended abortion rights. He recently held his first major campaign rally in Virginia, where the issue boosted Democrats, who won control of the state’s House of Representatives.
Biden is also promoting his handling of the economy, arguing that his policies have created millions of jobs, combated climate change and improved American competitiveness abroad. But polls show many voters don’t give his government credit.
The Democratic National Committee recently announced a six-figure ad buy in Nevada and South Carolina, where Biden won the first primaries on Saturday. The ads aim to build enthusiasm among Black, Asian American and Latino voters statewide, including radio, television and digital ads in Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog, and a billboard in Las Vegas’ Chinatown.
As early voting began in Nevada a week ago, Trump claimed without evidence at a campaign rally in Las Vegas that he was a victim of the Biden administration’s weaponizing of law enforcement. Trump has been indicted four times and faces 91 felonies.
Dan Lee, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that for Biden, “the map says he should hold Nevada.”
The Republican primaries are also Tuesday, but the state GOP will hold caucuses Thursday to allocate delegates. Trump competes in the caucuses; Rival Nikki Halley chose to stay in the non-binding primaries.
Representative Susie Lee of Nevada and Tick Segerblom, chairman of the Board of Clark County Commissioners, greeted Biden at Harry Reid International Airport. The president will perform in Las Vegas through Monday after spending part of the weekend in California.
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Stern reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
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Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Stern on X: @gabestern326