LAS VEGAS — Because the Democratic presidential candidates plead with Nevadans for his or her assist in 2020, Harry Reid is already trying to 2024.
LAS VEGAS — Because the Democratic presidential candidates plead with Nevadans for his or her assist in 2020, Harry Reid is already trying to 2024.
Mr. Reid, the previous Democratic chief within the Senate, stated in an interview that he hoped that his house state would transfer to the very entrance of the first calendar within the subsequent election. The decades-long custom of deferring to Iowa and New Hampshire must be over, Mr. Reid stated.
“We’ve accomplished it for years — to have the opposite 48 states taking part in second fiddle to 2 states that aren’t consultant of the nation,” he stated, arguing that it was unfair for these overwhelmingly white states to vote first.
For sure, the assertion displays Nevada’s political pursuits, in addition to Mr. Reid’s longstanding ambition to raise his state within the presidential nominating course of. However whilst he allowed that he had a sure bias, Mr. Reid insisted it was not merely Silver State pleasure behind his desire for Nevada going first in 2024.
“In fact I feel that, however it’s not simply me,” Mr. Reid stated, citing what he referred to as a common view that Nevada is “extra consultant of what’s occurring within the nation.”
“Now we have a state that’s extraordinarily numerous — about half the state is white, the remaining is minorities,” he famous. “Now we have a state that’s environmentally delicate. It’s a state that’s closely unionized.”
Mr. Reid, 80, is staking his hopes partially on Saturday’s caucuses right here, and quite a lot of his present and former advisers have been deeply concerned in getting ready the state to keep away from an Iowa-style meltdown. Nevada has held a number of days of early voting, with all indicators thus far pointing to sturdy turnout.
Ought to the caucuses go off nicely this weekend — and thus strengthen Nevada’s declare to a spot of privilege within the presidential nominating course of — it will signify a private triumph for Mr. Reid, who set out greater than a decade in the past to provide his state a robust hand in choosing presidential candidates. A longtime critic of Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Reid engineered an early function for his state beginning within the 2008 election cycle and the importance of Nevada has grown on the Democratic facet with every successive marketing campaign.
The prospect of Iowa or New Hampshire being displaced in 2024 now seems extra believable than ever, because of the fiasco in Iowa this month and Democratic leaders’ rising discomfort with the homogeneous character of these states.
However the stakes are excessive this weekend for Nevada Democrats, who should pull off a fancy caucus strategy of their very own if they’ll have an opportunity of transferring up subsequent time. Officers with the state and nationwide events have taken additional steps since Iowa to make sure a clean vote, however nervousness continues to run excessive amongst Democratic leaders and the assorted presidential campaigns.
Mr. Reid expressed confidence that Nevada Democrats have been ready to conduct a much more profitable caucus than the one which unfolded in Iowa, and boasted that his state had “the strongest occasion group within the nation.”
Although he nominally retired from skilled politics in 2016, Mr. Reid nonetheless looms massive as an elder statesman of Nevada politics and stays deeply concerned with the occasion: He stated that he was receiving common updates on preparations from the caucuses and that he had been talking ceaselessly with Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic Nationwide Committee.
However whereas Mr. Reid praised Mr. Perez as “a very simple man to cope with,” he stated he had not lately requested the occasion chairman for any particular help in making certain the success of the vote this weekend.
“I feel we’ve bought that beneath management,” Mr. Reid stated, including of Mr. Perez, “We maintain him suggested as to what’s occurring, however I don’t assume there’s a lot they’ll do to assist us, besides assist us financially.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Reid acknowledged that the voter turnout thus far had been greater than anticipated, resulting in lengthy traces at some early voting websites. Considered one of Mr. Reid’s sons had waited in line for an hour and a half to vote early this week, he stated, with Mr. Reid’s 18-year-old grandson in tow.
“I want we hadn’t had traces that lengthy, however we actually have been surprised by the turnouts we’ve had thus far,” Mr. Reid stated, including, “I feel that we’re having an excellent voter expertise. The turnout has been one thing, fairly frankly, I didn’t anticipate.”
Greater than 70,000 Nevadans voted early within the caucuses, in keeping with the Democratic Social gathering, placing the state on monitor to simply surpass turnout within the 2016 contests.
Assembly with a reporter on Tuesday, earlier than the latest debate, Mr. Reid reviewed the Democratic subject in broadly optimistic phrases: He stated he believed that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was sturdy in Nevada, although he famous Mr. Sanders had confronted “a little bit bother” from the highly effective Culinary Staff Union Native 226, which had “indicated they’re not pleased with him.”
(The labor group has strongly criticized…