The Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sets up an urban-vs.-rural showdown.
LAS VEGAS — It was shortly after midnight when Hillary Clinton descended into the basement of an enormous Las Vegas casino to shake the hands of about a half-dozen housekeepers folding linens. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders jetted off to the remote, conservative northeastern Nevada town of Elko, population 20,000, to rally the few Democrats there.
The divergent scenes show the two paths Clinton and Sanders are following as they furiously stump for every vote before Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. Clinton is hoping minorities and unions in Nevada’s population center give her the edge over Sanders, while the Vermont democratic socialist aims to drive up turnout in the state’s more lightly-populated northern region to claim victory. Sanders’ strategy is driven in part because Nevada Democrats allocate delegates to caucus winners based on congressional districts, giving greater weight to sparsely populated areas like Elko. Obama lost the popular vote to Clinton in the 2008 contest here but the quirky nature of the caucus enabled him to emerge with one more delegate than Clinton
“Her base is in Clark County,” said Andres Ramirez, a Democratic strategist in Las Vegas who backs Clinton. “I think he realizes he can’t break into her support more in Clark County and he’s going to the rurals.”
Neither candidate is pursuing a single-track strategy. Clinton canceled a trip to Florida on Monday to campaign in Elko and Reno and her campaign has devoted significant resources building a field operation even in the most remote reaches of the states. Sanders has especially focused on wooing Las Vegas’ minority population, especially young people, both to win votes and to counter the Clinton critique that he only appeals to white voters.
“We are doing well with young people, we are doing increasingly well with young African Americans, young Latinos. This is the future of the Democratic party,” Sanders told reporters on Thursday traveling to Nevada.
The Clinton campaign tried to keep hammering that note Friday as it unveiled the endorsement of Rep. James Clyburn, the top Democrat from the next state on the early voting calendar, South Carolina. Clyburn’s endorsement underscored Clinton’s strength in South Carolina among the state’s African-American community and the campaign’s plan to connect with black voters in a series of “Super Tuesday” contests on March 1 throughout the South.
The stakes in Nevada far outstrip the 35 delegates up for grabs Saturday. The state was supposed to be part of Clinton’s so-called “firewall” against Sanders, one of a series of heavilyminority states that follow mostly white Iowa and New Hampshire where Clinton would do well. But Sanders has poured resources into the state and drawn large and increasingly diverse crowds, leading some Democrats to worry that Clinton would lose the state or only narrowly win it.