1130 Nevada

NEVADA
 Nevada 1131

Nevada fuses two important, and divergent, demographic groups in today’s political scene,
minorities and blue-collar whites. The state is more than 29 percent Hispanic (the fifth highest of
any state), 9 percent Black and 9 percent Asian (the sixth highest)—all prime voting groups for
Democratic candidates. Nevada’s white population, meanwhile, accounts for less than 48 percent
of the total—the fifth smallest of any state—but it includes many with prickly views about the
federal government, which owns about 80 percent of the state’s land. These voters are receptive to
Republicans, especially those aligned with Donald Trump. Mix in economic upheaval, first during the
Great Recession and later during the coronavirus pandemic that flattened the state’s crucial tourism
industry, and you have the recipe for volatile politics. After a Republican sweep in 2014, Nevada
Democrats showed notable strength in two subsequent election cycles. In the 2020 presidential race,
Nevada showed less movement from the 2016 results than any other state, handing a narrow victory
to Joe Biden.
Nevada has been a land of boom and bust from its very beginnings as a territory. The evidence
of the latest boom is apparent as your plane descends at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport
(renamed for the former Senate Majority Leader from McCarran International Airport in 2021). You
see a pyramid rising from the desert; just across the street from a Sphinx-like lion are New York City-
style skyscrapers. Nearby are a fair-sized Eiffel Tower, the gondolas of Venice, and a flaming pirate
ship. But there have been signs of bust — giant hotels and condominiums with no lights on at night,
retail space up for rent, subdivisions where many houses are unoccupied, and a seamy side of town
expertly mined by CSI, the flagship of the long-running TV crime procedural. All this is set in one of
North America’s most forbidding landscapes, a bowl-shaped desert valley rimmed by barren peaks.
The natural parts would have looked familiar to the prospectors who first came to mine silver and
gold in Virginia City, on a mountain 6,700 feet above sea level, or to Mark Twain and Bret Harte,
who documented the heyday of the Comstock Lode, which beginning in 1859 produced $500 million
worth of silver within two decades. President Abraham Lincoln’s Republicans made Nevada a state
in 1864, even though it did not meet the population requirement, to win three more electoral votes.
But the silver boom went bust, and by 1900, Nevada had only 42,000 residents, down 68 percent from
its 1880 peak. For a time, it seemed questionable whether Nevada would be a viable state. In the early
1930s, when there were still only 91,000 Nevadans, the state government was about to go bankrupt.
So Nevada decided to roll the dice. It reduced its residency requirement for divorce to six weeks and
legalized gambling. The state catered to what most Americans considered sin—casinos, pawnshops,
divorce mills, quick-wedding chapels, and legal brothels. (Nevadans remain below average in church
attendance.) It turned out to be good business. The 6.75 percent gambling receipts tax generated
enough revenue to make it unnecessary for Nevada to impose income, corporate or inheritance taxes.
From mining boom to gambling boom, Nevada has been a second-chance state, a place for
outcasts to succeed and misfits to rebound. Only about a quarter of the state’s residents were born in
Nevada, a rate well below even second-place Florida’s, and that percentage has been steady for a half-
century. Today, more adult residents of the state were born in California than in Nevada, according to
Robert Lang of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Nevada has been an avenue of success for ethnic
groups who faced roadblocks elsewhere. The four owners of the Comstock Lode—MacKay, Fair,
Flood and O’Brien—were Irishmen. The first big hotel on the Las Vegas strip, the Flamingo, was
built in 1946 by the Jewish gangster Bugsy Siegel. Most of the big casinos were owned by mobsters
until industrialist Howard Hughes—a different kind of outcast—bought them up in the late 1960s.
The job market has consistently attracted minorities. But Nevada’s median income is 4 percent below
the national average, and the state is not highly educated: Less than a quarter of residents had a college
degree in 2018, ranking Nevada fifth to last among the states. As for K-12 schools, the Annie E.
Casey Foundation’s 2020 Kids Count report ranked Nevada 46th in the nation.
Gaming (the state’s preferred term for gambling) has generated enormous growth: The 91,000
people in the state who decided to legalize gambling has grown into a population of 3.1 million today.
Las Vegas was a dot on the map when gambling became legal, a one-traffic-light crossroads with
8,532 people in all of Clark County. Now, Clark County has almost 2.4 million. Las Vegas’ 23,000
hotel rooms in 1973 mushroomed into roughly 150,000 today. Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, is
now the state’s third-largest city with 320,000 residents, having grown by about one-quarter during
the decade. Reno, known as “the biggest little city in the world,” now has about 475,000 people in
1132 Nevada

its metro area. Nevada was America’s fastest-growing state in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and
2000s, and has been ranked fourth between 2010 and 2020. For a long historical moment, gaming
was a good economic bet. But in 2007, those revenues declined even before the national economy
fell into recession. Nevada suddenly went bust, with the decline in gaming revenues cascading into
a housing and construction crash. Nevada recorded the nation’s steepest fall in homeownership rates
between 2004 and 2012, and foreclosure rates peaked at nearly 10 percent of households.
As the nation began to recover, so did Nevada. Housing prices rebounded, as migrants from
other states flocked to a place with a much lower cost of living. Clark County’s population grew
16 percent between 2010 and 2019, operating with a revised business model. With some form of
gambling available in all of the lower 48 states and with neighboring California dotted with Indian
casinos, Las Vegas promoted itself as a family destination, not just a gambling den. While gaming
accounted for 57 percent of Nevada casino revenues in 1996, it fell to 43 percent by 2019, and on
the Strip specifically, the share declined to 35 percent. The Strip became a luxury shopping center
with world-class restaurants. The expansion of sports betting, which was legalized outside Nevada by
the Supreme Court in 2018, poses a threat, as does overseas competition; Macau’s gaming revenues
exceed those in Las Vegas. Las Vegas became a major player in the convention business, and its first
major-league sports team, the National Hockey League’s Golden Knights, began playing in 2017.
The city’s second pro sports team, the National Football League’s Raiders, began playing in 2020,
four years after the legislature approved a financing plan for the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium.
The coronavirus pandemic, however, hobbled Nevada’s economy to a greater extent than almost
any other state. (The pandemic also shuttered its brothels.) Prior to the pandemic, the state’s tourism
and hospitality sector had an estimated economic impact of $67.6 billion, but that was decimated
by the virus and accompanying lockdowns. Statewide unemployment peaked at 30 percent in April
2020 (the highest monthly rate for any state since records have been kept) and fell to a still-high 9.2
percent by November; in Las Vegas, unemployment peaked at 34 percent and fell to 11.5 percent,
almost as high as it was during the worst of the Great Recession. Even after partial reopenings, the
number of visitors in the fall had shrunk by at least half compared to a year earlier. “If you were to
imagine a horror movie when all the people disappear, that’s what it looks like,” food bank official
Larry Scott told The New York Times. (The powerful Culinary Workers Union helped members keep
their health insurance and cope with the state’s overburdened unemployment system.) Complicating
the pandemic response was the state’s health care system, which placed third from the bottom in the
Commonwealth Fund’s 2020 state rankings. By January 2021, Nevada ranked around the national
median for per capita coronavirus cases but in the top one-fifth for coronavirus deaths.
Even prior to the pandemic, the state had sought to diversify its economic base. Las Vegas is
now a hub for such businesses as Amazon, shoe retailer Zappos, and data firm Switch Inc., as well
as a developing medical sector that’s piggybacking on the University of Nevada’s medical school.
In Henderson, Google is building a $600 million data center and Haas Automation, which makes
computerized machining tools, is planning a 2.34 million square-foot factory. Meanwhile, solar
energy firms, including Tesla, Sunrun and Vivint Solar, have flocked to the state. In 2020, the Trump
administration approved the nation’s largest solar project, north of Las Vegas. (Conservationists have
expressed concern about its impact on habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise.) Reno, for its part,
has sunk in the gaming rankings without Las Vegas’ luxury attractions, but the surrounding county,
Washoe, has ridden its low cost of living and its pleasant combination of sun and ski slopes to a
population increase of almost 12 percent since 2010. Economic diversification is also proceeding in
Washoe County, with a big push from the state: Apple received $89 million in tax breaks to build
a data center, while electric automaker Tesla and Panasonic accepted $1.3 billion in state incentives
to build the biggest battery factory in the world. The factory expanded to produce parts for Tesla’s
Model 3 sports car. The resulting influx of workers has begun pushing up housing prices.
For all its distinctiveness, Nevada has been similar to the nation politically. A silver-producing
state, it voted three times for the free-silver populism of William Jennings Bryan, but since his final
candidacy in 1908, Nevada has voted only twice for the loser of a presidential election—Gerald
Ford in 1976 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. For years, Nevada sent politically shrewd Democrats to
Washington and kept them there to protect the interests of a state heavily dependent on the federal
government. The most enduring was Harry Reid. In 1982, he won election to the House and in 1986
 Nevada 1133

ran for the Senate and won; he became majority leader in 2007. Keeping him in this position was
of immense importance to the gaming industry and the Culinary Workers Union, which is majority
Latino and has a crackerjack political organization. When the federal government planned to build
a national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas, Reid fought it
mightily— and successfully. (Trump toyed with resurrecting the facility before backing off.) Even
in retirement, Reid remains a godfather of Nevada politics—and an influential national Democrat.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, was a Republican
mega-donor and owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Between 2000 and 2018, Nevada elected one Democratic and one Republican senator and
produced divided House delegations. In 2014, the GOP flipped control of the state legislature and
won every statewide office, but two years later the Democrats won back both chambers, as Hillary
Clinton, bolstered by nonwhite voters, was taking the state’s electoral votes. In 2018, Democrats
consolidated their gains, with Democrats Jacky Rosen and Steve Sisolak winning a Senate seat and
the governorship, respectively; the party also defended two open House seats and flipped the offices
of lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and controller. The GOP was able to hold only
the secretary of state’s office, eking out a 6,000-vote victory. In the legislature, Democrats extended
their control and became the first state to have a female-majority legislature. By 2021, 60 percent
of legislators were women.
In 2020, both Biden and Trump courted Nevada voters, but in the end, the Democrats’ winning
margin remained almost identical to what it was four years earlier. Biden won by 33,596 votes, up
only modestly from Clinton’s 27,202-vote margin, and Biden’s 2.5-point victory was about half as
wide as his margin nationally. The race was close enough that Nevada was one of the states where
Trump sought to overturn the results. In electorally dominant Clark County, both Clinton and Biden
won by 10 points, but in Washoe, Biden increased the winning Democratic margin from one point to
five points, consolidating the votes taken in 2016 by third parties and “none of these candidates” (an
eccentric option exclusive to Nevada voters). The close presidential margins in 2020, the state’s
diverse and fluctuating population, and its importance as an early state in the primary and caucus
calendar suggest that Nevada will continue to play an outsized role in national politics.

Population Race and Ethnicity Income

Total 3,080,156 White 64.60% Median Income 63,276
Land area (sq. miles) 109,781 Black 9.60% State Income Rank 24 out of 50
Pop/ sq mi 28.06 Latino 29.20% Poverty Rate 12.50%
Born in state 27.20% Asian 10.50% With health insurance 88.60%
Two or more races 4.70% Cash public assistance 2.60%
Age Groups
Other 12.60% Food stamp/SNAP 12.3%
Under 18 22.40%
18-34 22.80% Education Work
35-64 38.60% H.S grad or less 40.90% White Collar 30.40%
Over 64 16.20% Some college 33.40% Sales and Service 47.30%
College Degree, 4 yr 16.70% Blue Collar 22.30%
Military
Post grad 9.00% Government 11.40%
Veteran/ Active Duty 9.30%

Presidential Politics
2020 Caucus (D) Sanders (D) 41,075(40%) Biden (D) 19,179(19%) Buttigieg (D) 17,598(17%)
Warren (D) 11,703(12%) Klobuchar (D) 7,376 (7%)
2016 Caucus (D) Clinton (D) 6,440(53%) Sanders (D) 5,785(47%)
2016 Caucus (R) Trump (R) 34,531(46%) Rubio (R) 17,940(24%) Cruz (R) 16,079(21%)
2020 Pres. Vote Biden (D) 703,486(50%) Trump (R) 669,890(48%)
2016 Pres. Vote Clinton (D) 539,260(48%) Trump (R) 512,058(46%) Carson (R) (5%)
Johnson (L) 37,384 (3%)

Nevada has been a battleground in every presidential election since Bill Clinton narrowly carried
it in 1992. In 2020, Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump 50.1%-47.8%, a 2.3-percent margin
that was slightly closer than Hillary Clinton’s 47.9%-45.5% victory in 2016. That’s the fourth
1134 Nevada

presidential election in a row where Democrats’ margin has narrowed—though they’ve carried the
state every time.
Democrats win Nevada when they run up the margin in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and
its suburbs and about two-thirds of the state’s total vote, while winning Washoe County (Reno).
Republicans win when they carry Washoe, hold down the margins in Las Vegas’ suburbs, and
get strong turnout from the state’s 15 rural counties, known as the “cow counties.” The growing
number of Hispanic voters in Nevada—many of whom live in Clark—is another asset for Democratic
presidential candidates, though Trump did better with Hispanic voters in 2020 than 2016.
Both campaigns spent heavily to contest the state in 2020, and overall turnout jumped by almost
300,000 votes from 2016, a nearly 25 percent increase. Biden narrowly led Trump in Nevada on
election night, but as more mail ballots were tallied his lead grew to more than 34,000. Trump and
his lawyers howled about voter fraud, but multiple courts ruled against them as they failed to produce
any persuasive evidence. Biden won Washoe County by a wider margin than Clinton, making up for
Trump’s slightly stronger performance in Clark. Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Sheldon Adelson
and his wife, Miriam, were the largest donors to Trump and the GOP in 2020, spending almost $220
million in the last election cycle. Adelson died in early 2021 at age 87.
Since Nevada became an early-caucus state in 2008 after intense lobbying by then-Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, it has played a key role in both parties’ nominating processes. Clinton
won the 2008 caucuses, helping her bounce back and leading to a long, drawn-out contest with Barack
Obama. Trump scored a huge victory in the 2016 GOP caucuses, defeating Florida Sen. Marco Rubio,
46%-24%. On the Democratic side, Clinton held off Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 53%-47%.
Sanders invested heavily in the state in 2020. “Tío Bernie” campaigned hard in the state’s
Hispanic community, and his team had by far the largest and best-organized field operation. The
powerful Culinary Union, which had attacked Sanders’ universal health care plan, ended up staying
on the sidelines as it became clear he’d likely win the state. Sanders scored a 34%-18% win over
Biden, with Pete Buttigieg at 15% and Elizabeth Warren at 13%. Sanders’ win made him the early
frontrunner for the nomination and helped convince many in the Democratic establishment to rally
hard around Biden as the only viable alternative, setting up his comeback after a South Carolina
victory a week later. But Biden's primary weakness in the state hinted at his coming general election
problems with some Hispanic voters.
Nevada’s 2020 caucuses went smoother than Iowa's, but only because Iowa melted down first—
the Nevada Democratic Party had to scrap the app it was planning to use and scramble to put together
an alternate. Reid and some other Democrats called afterwards for Democrats to scrap all caucuses
and pushed for Nevada to become the first-voting primary state, a move that could set off a primary
calendar scramble ahead of 2024.

Congressional Districts

117th Congress Lineup 3D 1R 116th Congress Lineup 3D 1R

Nevada’s population gain in the past decade, while in the double digits, will not lead the nation
—as it did in the 1990s and 2000s. The boom, in which the state rocketed from one district in 1980
to four in 2012, may finally be subsiding. But redistricting tensions have not disappeared.
In the 2011 redistricting, partisan control was split and tensions ran high. Democrats in charge
of the legislature passed maps creating one safely Republican seat in northern Nevada and three
Democratic-leaning seats in Clark County. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed the maps on the
grounds that Latinos deserved a majority Latino seat based in the northeast quadrant of metro Las
Vegas. Democrats decried Sandoval’s position as a veiled attempt to pack Democratic voters and
create three Republican-leaning seats in the process. The debate fractured Latino advocacy groups,
and the legislature adjourned in a stalemate. Carson City District Judge James Todd Russell appointed
three independent special masters to draw a map. The trio submitted a diplomatic plan that created
a safely Democratic, 43 percent Latino 1st District and preserved a Republican-leaning 2nd District
in the north. They created a slightly more Republican 3rd District including Henderson to the south,
 Governor / Nevada 1135

and a new Democratic-leaning 4th District linking substantially Latino North Las Vegas with several
rural counties to the north. The result in 2012 was an even 2-2 split.
Since then, multiple developments have shaped the contours for the next round of redistricting.
In 2016, Democrats gained two seats to take 3-1 control of the delegation, which they have retained.
They also regained control of the legislature. In 2018, they secured their redistricting lock when they
won the election for governor. Still, as they seek to reinforce their swing seats, Democrats will face
renewed pressure from Latinos eager to win a House seat in a state that has grown to 29 percent
Hispanic. With the 1st District in need of additional residents, that could increase the pressure to
add Latinos. Latinos might find it difficult to force Democratic Rep. Dina Titus to exit before she is
ready. On the other hand, each of the three Democrats holding Las Vegas-area districts has suffered
at least one defeat earlier in their career. So, as is the way in Nevada, the incumbents might be forced
to take the cards they have been dealt.

Steve Sisolak (D)

Elected 2018, term expires 2023, 1st term; b. Dec. 26, 1953,
Milwaukee, WI; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, B.S., 1974;
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, M.B.A, 1978; Married (Kathy Ong);
2 children (2 from previous marriage)
Elected Office: Member, NV Board of Regents, 1999-2008; Member,
Clark County Commission, 2009-2019, Vice chair, 2011-2013, Chair,
2013-2019.

Office: 101 N. Carson St. Carson City, 89701; 775-684-5670; Fax: 775-684-5683; Website: nv.gov
Lt. Gov.: Kate Marshall (D) Atty. Gen: Aaron Ford (D) Sec. of State: Barbara Cegavske (R)
State Legislature: Senate: 13D, 8R House: 28D, 13R, 1V

Election Results
Vote
Election Name (Party)
(%)
2018 General Steve Sisolak (D).................................................................. 480,007 (49%)
Adam Laxalt (R)................................................... ............... 440,320 (45%)
2018 Primary Steve Sisolak (D).................................................................... 72,749 (52%)
Chris Giunchigliani (D).......................................................... 56,511 (40%)

Steve Sisolak—a longtime commissioner in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas—became
the first Democrat to win the Nevada governorship in two decades in 2018. Entering office with
expanded Democratic majorities in the legislature, Sisolak proceeded to enact a broadly progressive
agenda.
Sisolak grew up in Wauwatosa Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. His father worked as a General
Motors design engineer; his mother worked in a convenience store. When Sisolak was 10, his father
found himself laid off for three years. Sisolak worked his way through college at the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He came to Las Vegas in 1976 to pursue an MBA at the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas. After earning his degree, Sisolak built a direct-marketing business and raised two
daughters as a single father. In 1979, during a snowstorm, the power went out as Sisolak’s appendix
was being operated on, and he nearly died. That brought him back to Catholicism; he’s said that he
attends mass daily.
From 1999 to 2008, Sisolak served on the Nevada Board of Regents, then served on the Clark
County Commission from 2009 to 2019, the final six years as chair. On the commission, “he comes
across like a gadfly in politician’s clothes, demanding accountability for every dollar spent and
questioning policies he thinks make no sense,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote in 2010. At