LAS VEGAS — As six main presidential candidates brawled onstage in a debate Wednesday night on the Las Vegas Strip, a handful of Nevadans supportin
LAS VEGAS — As six main presidential candidates brawled onstage in a debate Wednesday night on the Las Vegas Strip, a handful of Nevadans supporting a person who didn’t make the minimize had been round seven miles away, puzzling over their night plans.
“Oh, he’s not?” requested an incredulous Cindy Yeargan, 71, when knowledgeable that the hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer was not going to be onstage. She was making ready to stroll right into a Steyer marketing campaign workplace right here. “We had been right here for a debate watch!”
Mary Holmes, 65, arrived quickly after, additionally underneath the impression that an occasion was scheduled on the marketing campaign workplace.
“He’s a pleasant man,” Ms. Holmes stated of Mr. Steyer. “I need to know precisely what he can do.”
As Ms. Yeargan, Ms. Holmes and some others would uncover, there was not, in truth, a debate watch celebration occurring on the marketing campaign workplace, whilst a truck bearing stacks of folding chairs rolled up early within the night.
However whereas Mr. Steyer didn’t ballot excessive sufficient to make the controversy stage this spherical after touchdown distant finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, he has emerged as a real risk to quite a few his rivals in South Carolina and, probably, right here in Nevada, because the largely self-funded candidate spends tens of millions on the airwaves in each states.
He’s additionally spending his cash on splashy marketing campaign occasions: On Friday, he’s set to rally right here with the group TLC, recognized for 1990s hits like “No Scrubs.”
Ms. Yeargan stated the tv ads had piqued her preliminary curiosity in Mr. Steyer, who was lengthy a vocal advocate of President Trump’s impeachment and who helps progressive environmental and racial justice insurance policies.
“His environmental strategy is to scrub up air and water in black and brown communities,” stated Jack Arte, 51, Ms. Holmes’s son. “He’s sure on reparations. Mentally — he’s serving to folks. It’s on his thoughts.”
Mr. Steyer, a spokesman stated, was spending the night assembly with precinct captains and making calls to his groups across the state to encourage them within the homestretch earlier than the caucuses.
“Tonight’s debate helped one particular person — Donald Trump,” Mr. Steyer stated in a press release after the controversy, additionally saying it was “clear that Bloomberg might be operating within the incorrect main.”
“As an alternative of specializing in how we will enhance the lives of People and construct a various coalition to beat Donald Trump,” Mr. Steyer stated, “we noticed plenty of bickering over coverage discrepancies that received’t matter if we don’t win in November.”
A few of the voters and volunteers who confirmed up all through the night at his vivid workplace with giant home windows, situated in a strip mall, had hoped to see Mr. Steyer discussing substantive points along with his fellow Democrats.
“Certainly one of his issues is the financial system,” Ms. Yeargan stated. “He is aware of it in and out too, as a result of he’s a businessman and might name Trump out on it.”
Laura Flood, 68, stated that she used to reside on the identical avenue as former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the Higher East Aspect of New York.
She stated she was supporting Mr. Steyer, citing his background as “a businessman” and saying “he labored extensively with race relations.”
She was visiting Mr. Steyer’s workplace as a volunteer, arriving for coaching, however she additionally stated she was curious to see how Mr. Bloomberg fared onstage, in his first debate look of the first season.
“He was neighbor,” Ms. Flood stated. “ mayor.”
A couple of five-minute drive away, an precise debate watch celebration unfolded, hosted by the League of Conservation Voters and Chispa, a department of the environmental group centered on Latinos organizing round local weather motion.
Over nachos and pasta, attendees watched the controversy and responded to candidates — particularly, it typically sounded, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — with scattered applause and approving snaps.
Bertha Robledo, 85, stated via an interpreter that she believed Mr. Sanders was having the strongest evening, however she added that she was supporting former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.
“He might need higher concepts for our world,” stated Ms. Robledo, a volunteer chief with Chispa and an advocate for electrical college buses. “Others is perhaps drained. Worn out.”
Requested how he felt the controversy was going, Joe Figlow, 70, a Buttigieg supporter, paused.
“Nicely,” he stated, laughing and saying the candidates had been appearing in self-defense, “It’s lots of people getting just a little nasty.”