LAS VEGAS — As President Biden rambled on and on during a 90-minute debate this week, Republican voters in Sin City felt a rare emotion: optimism that Nevada will choose former President Donald Trump in November.
It’s the first time a Republican has won the Silver State’s electoral votes in 20 years: President George W. Bush won the state’s five electoral votes in 2004, but now it has six. Nevada has become increasingly Democratic, with Trump losing the state to Hillary Clinton eight years ago and to Biden in 2020.
Supporters of the former president who had gathered for a state Republican Party watch party at the Italian American Club, one of the city’s oldest eateries, were initially hopeful but wary, an atmosphere exacerbated by initial glitches with video and audio from the debate hosted by CNN.
But as the match progressed, Biden’s apparent difficulties answering question after question shocked and saddened the crowd.
“I couldn’t understand even two sentences. [of] “I don’t know what the president was trying to say,” said Christiane Mersch, a Summerlin resident and development manager at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. “It concerns me. I think he needs to be medically and mentally evaluated because he is not competent to serve as president at this point.”
Las Vegas resident Joe Burzynski said he was concerned about “the look that comes across at times” on the president’s face.
“He had a blank look on his face and his eyeballs were popping out at times,” he said. “Especially in his final statement, the last two minutes, he was mumbling.”
Burzynski said he was troubled by Biden’s comments about the need for more “fentanyl-making machines” to combat the influx of deadly synthetic opioids.
“During the debate, when he was talking about machines, I didn’t know what machines he was referring to in relation to drugs. I don’t know where it fits in or how it works,” the local resident said.
“I’m feeling the same kind of momentum that Ronald Reagan experienced against Jimmy Carter in 1980,” said Burzynski, who has been involved in Republican activism for 49 years.
“I think the economy is a big issue in this election,” he added. “The economy has been doing well under Donald Trump, gas prices have gone down, grocery prices have gone down, and that’s going to make a big difference among Democrats and independents.”
Mersch, president of the local Freedom for Moms chapter, who spoke at Trump’s outdoor rally on June 9, said the former president’s promise to eliminate the tip tax shows “a great chance for Trump to win here.”
“There are a lot of people, especially in the culinary industry, who support the Republican front-runners for the tip tax exemption,” she said.
“Hardworking Latino families are being negatively impacted by Biden’s policies,” she said.
Political consultant Zachary Hayes said Trump “will probably win the state” because he “came close to winning” in 2020, when he lost to Biden by 33,606 votes.
“I think Biden lost too much support in the state, and it’s become more Republican over time because it’s a state that’s more blue-collar and working class,” Hayes said, “and the demographics, the shift in how voters vote based on class, favors Republicans.”
Linda Cassaro, a Buffalo, New York, native who has lived in Las Vegas for 40 years, thinks Biden’s disastrous debate loss should be a wake-up call for Nevada Democrats.
“I don’t know who’s going to replace him, but they should be worried.”
She thinks Trump “without a doubt” will win the state and “will do just as good for the country as he did when he was first elected.”
