ELKO, Nev. (AP) – Hillary Clinton worked to pull out a victory in Nevada’s caucuses on Saturday, seeking to undercut the headway of rival Bernie Sanders and boost her presidential bid as the campaign broadens to primary contests across the country.
Though Clinton installed staff on the ground last spring, Sanders’ message of combating income inequality appeared to find fertile ground in recent weeks in a state where many voters are still struggling to rebound after years of double-digit unemployment. And significant spending on paid media and staff helped his campaign make inroads into the Latino and African-American communities, which make up a significant portion of the Democratic electorate in the state.
A Sanders victory would undercut one of Clinton’s major campaign arguments: that the Vermont senator’s insurgent campaign largely appeals to white liberals, a relatively narrow swath of the Democratic Party. Eight years ago, one-third of Democratic caucus-goers in Nevada were minority voters, a percentage that’s far more representative of the country as a whole than mostly white Iowa and New Hampshire.
The candidates spent their final hours before the caucuses furiously trying to drive up turnout among their supporters.
Clinton made her way through a college campus, a youth employment program, a town-hall event with high school students and casino workers at Planet Hollywood in hopes of motivating the Las Vegas-area minority voters and union members who could give her the edge over Sanders.