美国国家公共电台 NPR Democrats See Nevada As 'The Model' For A Blue Wave

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Not for 20 years has there been a Democratic governor in Nevada. It's an increasingly blue state in presidential elections. The governor's office has stayed red, but this year, Republicans face a challenge, as NPR's Leila Fadel reports.

STEVE SISOLAK: Hi, Steve Sisolak. I'm running for governor.

LEILA FADEL, BYLINE²: It's Sunday afternoon, and Steve Sisolak is at the Seafood³ City Supermarket.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I'm here with Steve Sisolak.

FADEL: The Democratic candidate for governor walks through the fast-food joints⁴ at the entrance of the store passing out business cards. Today, he's focused on the Asian-American and Pacific Islander vote. They're are about 10 percent of the state. And like the country, they're the fastest growing population. But in this community, the turnout is historically low, and in the midterm election, voter turnout is unusually low across the board.

SISOLAK: We've got to turn out voters. And if we turn out the voters that we've identified, we're going to win. We're going to win up and down the ticket. If we don't, we're going to suffer the ramifications⁵ of that.

FADEL: Sisolak says that's the biggest challenge. Nevada is a purple state that bucked⁶ the swing state trend in the 2016 election largely due to Latino voters organized by the state's strongest labor⁷ union, the Culinary Union. Nevada chose Hillary Clinton. Democrats⁸ flipped¹⁰ the state legislature and delivered the first Latina senator to Congress - Catherine Cortez Masto. It's the model, says Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He's in Nevada for the day campaigning.

TOM PEREZ: The Democratic Party nationally needs to emulate¹¹ what Nevada has been doing since the beginning of 2015, which is organizing early, organizing everywhere, making sure that we have a 12-month party where we're talking to people.

FADEL: He points to the voting flyers at every checkout¹² counter of the Asian grocery store - an early voting site. He says attention to details like that is what's important.

PEREZ: You know, the old DNC had a faith-based approach to midterm elections. You know, we'd pray that the candidates would win, but we didn't do much else.

FADEL: Perez says he thinks Democrats will flip⁹ anywhere from eight to a dozen governor seats this election. The popular Republican incumbent¹³ in Nevada, Brian Sandoval, is barred from running because of term limits. So Sisolak has a chance against his Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt, the current attorney general. I reached out to Laxalt's campaign for this story, too, but no one responded. Now, something is shifting this year with voter turnout. It was higher than usual during the primaries and in the first days of early voting, and the race is really a toss-up according to polls. Jon Ralston is the editor of The Nevada Independent and an expert on Nevada politics. We meet at a coffee shop.

JON RALSTON: A Nevada electorate¹⁴ reflects the nation's electorate - very polarized, it's a lower turnout election. So it's tribalism. The Republicans are going to vote for the Republican. The Democrats are going to vote for the Democrat¹.

FADEL: Like the country, Nevada votes mostly Democrat in urban areas, and it votes Republican in rural areas. So Ralston says whoever can turn out their voters will win the governorship.

RALSTON: That's how Adam Laxalt won four years ago for attorney general. He is the only candidate in modern Nevada history to have lost both the urban areas and still won a statewide race.

FADEL: Back at the grocery store, Democratic candidate Steve Sisolak wraps up his visit. The people he meets are reflective of Las Vegas' transient character - some are recent arrivals or visitors who can't vote in Nevada; others are conservatives who shake Sisolak's hand and later tell me they're not voting for him. And then there's Laurie Latta.

LAURIE LATTA: I have a question.

SISOLAK: Sure.

LATTA: What percentage of the marijuana sales go to schools?

FADEL: She registered in 2016 to vote to legalize marijuana. She thought the money that came from it would go to her kids' schools. So far, she says, that hasn't happened.

LATTA: Where's our money going? How are we going to fix the schools? 'Cause when school first started, my daughter had to sit on the floor 'cause there weren't enough desks for the kids.

FADEL: She'll vote for the person who will improve her three children's education. Leila Fadel, NPR News, Las Vegas.

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