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LAS VEGAS – In 63 years, Linda Powers has never felt more politically engaged. She never felt more comfortable. She never felt that way.
So, on Friday afternoon, in front of the sound of crushed and cooked beans, she joined half a dozen other Republicans sitting in the back of a coffee shop in the mall, calling the voters to urge them to vote.
"This assessment is different from all those before," she said. "With the divisions in the country – and the Democrats are doing this – everyone will go out and vote the line of their party. We will see who feels stronger about it. "
Across the city, Aby Rojas knocked door to door, backed by a bottle of water filled with chia seeds and having a hard time believing that someone could feel the outcome of the election stronger. She has been a hostess for almost 20 years in Paris Las Vegas. Her husband is here with a special visa that Trump threatens to terminate, and she fears that he will be deported.
"It's more personal for people now because of President Trump," she said. "They are really pursuing us. We must do something. "
The campaign in Nevada could be the ultimate test of Democrat enthusiasm over a Republican organization, which becomes a defining feature of the 2018 mid-term elections – and a reflection of 2016, when a Democratic organization Sophisticated was overthrown nationwide by the raw energy of the Trump movement. .
Linda Powers, a volunteer from the Nevada Republican Party, is learning to phone Friday at Avery's Coffee in Las Vegas. (Bridget Bennett for the Washington Post)
Many of the trends that are emerging across the country during this mid-term cycle are sparkling here. The race in Nevada is a test of whether Republicans can still compete in a purple state and withstand the demographic changes that are about to affect them in other states. And the question is whether the controversial confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court will strengthen Republicans – or Democrats.
Both sides are aggressively attacking potential voters and Democrats are particularly attacking Hispanic voters, who represent a growing share of the population. Republicans worry however, might be motivated to blunt the power of a builder president to run. .
Both parties see it as one of the first battlegrounds this year. President Trump rallied voters in Elko on Saturday and former President Barack Obama is due to visit Las Vegas on Monday. Almost all of the elections here are competitive: congressional contests, the governor's race and the US Senate contest between Republican MP Dean Heller and Democratic Representative Jacky Rosen. The results could dictate how each party approaches the future, including a 2020 presidential contest, in which Nevada will play an early role.
In 2016, Nevada was a rare asset for Democrats: Hillary Clinton won the state and the Democrats won a seat in the Senate, two congressional races and control of the state legislature. If a blue wave were emerging, these contests of the House and Senate would seem to be the easiest to win. But that was not the case; these campaigns are among the tightest races in the country, offering Republicans the hope of being able to stem a democratic attack and giving Democrats even greater concern about their chances.
"I think the enthusiasm is real, but I'm nervous. I do not think it will be a wave, "said Megan Jones, a long-time Democratic consultant working on independent spending this year. "It's more of a tide. And I do not know yet whether it's low tide or high tide. "
Former Vice President Joe Biden will speak in front of supporters at a rally of the Nevada Democratic Party at the Local 226 headquarters of the Culinary Workers Union in downtown Las Vegas. Saturday. (Christopher Devargas / Las Vegas Sun / AP)
"It's a draw. I would not be surprised if the Democrats won all the races and it was super tight. I would not be surprised if the Republicans won all the races and it was super tight, "said veteran Republican consultant Peter Ernaut. "Which is just a strange place to be."
The 2016 elections triggered alarms for the Republicans here. In the course of a year in which Trump actually exploited a populist movement of voters dissatisfied with the loss of homes, jobs, and salaries – something that Nevada has en masse – they Are lost.
The Democrats relied on a powerful political organization, built during decades of work by former Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, dominated by a union of casino workers, and created this that the Democrats considered themselves to be their own little blue bubble.
The Republicans promised to make a more concerted investment, an investment that, he hoped, would help protect vulnerable Senator Dean Heller, the only outgoing Republican president to run in the state that Clinton had won.
The Republican National Committee then modeled its organization on the Obama campaign in 2008 and 2012, recruiting and training volunteers to organize in their own communities. They trained more than 2,000 people in the state – up from 5,000 at the national level in 2016 – and by August they had established 1 million contacts, the same amount as during the entire campaign of 2016.
"They are here as they were not before. They are better organized than they were before – even in Clark County, the Democratic stronghold, "said Jon Ralston, a leading political analyst here, who is the editor of the Nevada Independent.
"The Republican Party was a joke," he added. "But the RNC was organized. They did not do it two months ago, as they have tried in the past. They have been there for a while.
For the first time, Republicans have a full-time employee aimed at building relationships with traditionally skeptical communities of Republicans, including Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans. The program is not openly political, but rather aims to create positive relationships by working on issues such as choosing schools or helping new residents to settle.
They also hired a director of voter registration for the first time, which reduced a Democratic advantage.
"We are in a very, very good position as we have built this grassroots army to bring together the constituents we need to gather," said Dan Coats, RNC's state director for Nevada. "They recruit their neighbors and members of their community."
But the RNC has a long way to catch up, because as it has improved, the existing Democratic organization has been strengthened by renewed enthusiasm for Trump's overthrow.
The Culinary Local Union 226 is the dominant political force in the state, with 57,000 members. She was busy in the last days of the week.
Every day except Sunday, about 200 members of the union travel from 9:30 to 19:30. They go into bilingual teams, dressed in red shirts and knock on the doors of incoherent voters, begging them to go to the polls this time.
"The RNC can use whatever it wants. We have been working on it for 83 years, "said Bethany Khan, spokesperson for the kitchen union. "The long-term investment in protecting our community is there – and it's not funded by billionaires."
They have brochures on each of the Democratic candidates. They talk about class size, health care and the minimum wage. But the most exciting factor is the man who does not appear on the ballot.
"Trump makes me a democrat," said Bryan Eble, a 57-year-old unemployed man, taking his dog to the door and informing the kitchen crew that he would vote. early.
A few streets away, Darrell Ballard, a 52-year-old half-man, showed up outside his door and told that he had not drunk alcohol for nearly 10 years. years before the 2016 voting night.
"I got drunk that night," he said. "Motivated – Yeah, I'm in that more than any other election in my life."
Early voting began Saturday in Nevada, and both campaigns are considering that the next few days are essential to understanding who may have an advantage in the state. This is a test for Republican's much touted new campaign infrastructure, just as it will test whether Democratic enthusiasm translates into votes. Saturday's countdown of votes indicated that Democrats stood out massively – approaching the number of presidential – and slightly ahead of the Republicans in Washoe County, an area of influence in the northwestern part of the country. ;State.
A recent NBC News / Marist poll, in which Heller won two more points than Rosen in the Senate, revealed that 89% of likely Democrat voters considered the medium term "very important", compared to 82% of true Republican voters.
But Democrats also see evidence that Republicans are closing their backlog. The turning point seemed to be happening at the Kavanaugh hearings – something that Heller and his followers frequently mention.
The Democrats, led by Rosen, push health care because the problem they feel most affects voters. This is the subject of the hunt for the prospector, and that's the first thing Rosen usually talks about.
Democrats have also focused on Trump's immigration policies to convince Hispanic voters, whose turnout is plummeting at mid-term.
The Republican strategy of recent weeks seems much more focused on creating less diverse rural areas. It's a deal that Trump appeared to have made during his rally with Heller on Saturday, when the opening of the advance poll marked the beginning of a parade of personalities to reinforce the legions of volunteers who have been traveling through Nevada for months.
"Do we have a lot of Hispanic Americans here?" Trump asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Uh. Not the most, not the most. I would give him 5 percent. It's good. "
Previously, outside the headquarters of the culinary syndicate in downtown Las Vegas, where much of the democratic thrust is being organized, a mariachi band has played and soon former vice president Joe Biden took the stage . He removed his aviator sunglasses and navy blue blazer, decryed the current state of politics and accused Trump of making fun of world diplomacy.
"I'm so tired that the Democrats are walking around saying," Woe to me. Things are so bad. I already did, said Biden.
"People, it's time to get up! Lift your head! Shouted it. "Remember who we are. Take back the Senate and change the world as we know it. Now, now, now, now. "
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