Kamala Harris sees a chance to win in Las Vegas

Image via AP.

Vice President Kamala Harris is working to make Nevada look like less of a political gamble in November’s election.

The Democratic presidential nominee visits the state on Saturday with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. It’s the final stop of a battleground blitz in which Democrats are showing new energy after President Joe Biden exited the race and Harris replaced him at the top of the ticket. That new enthusiasm has enabled them to boost turnout efforts in swing states such as Nevada and Arizona, which Harris visited Friday.

Magnolia Magat, a 59-year-old restaurant owner in Las Vegas who lives in the neighboring city of Henderson, said she’s now “more hopeful” about the election.

“I am very happy that not only is our candidate a woman, she is Black and she’s also Asian,” said Magat, who is Filipino American. “And it’s not because Harris is a woman that I want to endorse her. It’s because she’s highly capable of running the country.”

As part of the trip, Harris is hoping to build greater support among Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly beat Republican Donald Trump by 2.4 percentage points in Nevada. Trump, the former president, is trying this time to create more support in a state that relies on the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industry by pledging to make workers’ tips tax-free.

But the union representing 60,000 workers in that industry, the Culinary Workers Union, announced Friday night its endorsement of Harris. About 54% of the union’s members are Latino, 55% women and 60% immigrants.

“The path to victory runs through Nevada,” the union said in a statement, “and the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice President Tim Walz.”

AP VoteCast found in 2020 that 14% of Nevada voters were Hispanic, with Biden winning 54% of their votes. His margin with Hispanic voters was slightly better nationwide, a sign that Democrats cannot take this bloc of voters for granted.

In Nevada’s rural Douglas County near the California border, Gail Scott, 71, serves on the central committee of the local Democratic Party and said she didn’t initially agree with calls for Biden to leave the race. Trump won the county in 2016 and 2020, but trimming his margins there could lower his ability to compete in Nevada.

Scott said it’s impossible to miss the energy that Harris has created among younger voters who could help statewide.

“Young people are embracing Kamala Harris and the enthusiasm and the joy that she’s brought to the campaign,” she said.

Brian Shaw, a Republican from northern Nevada, said Harris’ arrival on the top of the ticket could make it harder for Trump to win because Biden was a “pitiful candidate” and there’s little time to expose the vice president’s “incompetence.”

He said he attended Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s rally in Reno on July 30 and found him to be “likable, capable, polished as a politician, but not veneered.” He didn’t have much of an opinion of Walz.