Democrats are trying to find a way to make a comeback in Nevada after President Trump became the first GOP presidential candidate to win the state since President George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump is scheduled to take a victory lap this weekend and travel to the states to celebrate his big victory during this first week of his new presidency.
“I'm really going to Nevada to thank Nevada for the vote, because we overwhelmingly won Nevada and it's usually a Democratic vote,” Trump said.
Democrats are trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what went wrong after Harris lost all swing states to Trump, the party lost the Senate majority and failed to take back the House.
There are conversations going on about what went wrong in the Silver State.
“Democrats said we need to spend more time listening to people and less time lecturing people. I think that's the No. 1 lesson we can come away with. ” said Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) on the Hill.
“I think the Trump campaign is very smartly focusing on people who have never voted before,” she added.
playing cards believed in his victory His “tax-free tips” proposal, which he debuted at a rally in Las Vegas last June, may have been popular with the state's service workers. Harris demonstrated the importance of the issue and later endorsed the tax-exempt tips proposal herself.
Now that Trump is in office, progressive voices in the state are “re-energized and re-emerging” as they prepare to “fight back” against the new administration's policies, Democratic Party in the state said. said Annette Magnus, a political consultant in Nevada who has worked primarily with members of Congress.
However, the November elections brought some victories to the party. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) ended a challenge from Republican Sam Brown, and all three Nevada House Democrats won re-election.
Party members were also able to pass a ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution. Democrats need voters to approve it again in 2026.
And although Harris lost the presidential election, one Democratic Party worker who spoke with the Hill believes the former vice president helped cause other losses.
“We've certainly lost something big, and it's been terrible, and there's been some fine-tuning and some lessons learned at the national level about what we need to do next. ” said the operative.
“But I don't think Nevada Democrat Carte Blanche needs to tweak their message that much because everyone else won.”
By lowering the vote, Republicans prevented Democrats from having a supermajority in either legislative chamber. Still, Democrats still control both chambers at hand.
Against all this background, Democrats are losing ground with registered voters. Democrats had about 669,000 Active registered voters for December 2020, There were about 590,000 Republicans and about 439,000 independent voters.
by the end of last monthDemocrats saw only 626,000 active registered voters, and Republicans closely held the position with 622,000. But active registered voters with no party affiliation outnumbered both, swelling to 702,000.
David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, credits some of the changing numbers to automatic voter registration, saying, “Some of that nonpartisan voting is actually materializing at the polls. No,” he said.
“They say the data for at least the last couple of presidential elections is in ebb and flow with the national tide,” Damore said of Nevada's independent voters. “The real challenge for Democrats is to figure out what they think are non-Partisans who vote their Democrats. That's what they said they were going to do this time, and that didn't happen. .”
The party outside the White House generally gains seats in Congress in the midterm elections, and many Democrats believe they have a shot at regaining the House majority in 2026.
Nevada believes it will benefit if voters tire of Trump's policies.
“I believe there will be buyer's remorse in a few months, which may not even be that long,” said Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.).
“We have a large Hispanic population. They're going to see what this immigration policy is all about,” she said.
But like the rest of the country, there are also signs that Nevada Democrats are looking at a place to work with Trump after the sting loss.
“If he's serious about passing it on,” Rep. Stephen Horsford (D-Nev.) said of the tax tip law.
Mike Lillis contributed.
