Topline Takeaways

• Nevada’s pervasive gun culture makes the state somewhat difficult for Democrats as the national party often supports gun control initiatives at odds with Nevada voters’ preferences.
• Unions in Las Vegas helped Democrats overcome their opposition, especially with Donald Trump on the ballot. The area’s most impactful union has clashed with the former president’s hotel over union representation in the past.

Nevada has much more of a gun culture than most other West Coast states, in part due to its lax gun laws. Residents are not required to obtain a permit before purchasing or openly carrying a gun in the state of Nevada, nor are they required to register their gun after purchasing it. Las Vegas even has a bit of gun-culture tourism alongside its gambling on the Strip. This clear commitment to upholding the 2nd Amendment is a boon for the Republican party as even some Democrats in the state favor preserving gun ownership rights.

A bill was recently introduced in the state senate that would have made concealed carry in casinos and other specified properties a misdemeanor. Surprisingly, several Nevada Democrats opposed the bill due to distrust in how the law would be enforced:

“We believe that this policy will subject legal gun owners that are members of the African American community to lethal encounters with law enforcement.”

-Yvette Williams, chair of the Clark County Black Caucus

This complicates things for Nevada Democrats when national Democratic politicians call for increasing gun restrictions in various forms nationwide. Even after the tragic shooting on the Las Vegas strip in 2017, some Nevada voters are still hesitant when it comes to supporting stricter gun control laws or embracing universal background checks.

For the first time in 20 years, Nevada’s state government is led by a Democratic trifecta: both state houses and the governor’s mansion are controlled by the Democratic party. While there was some momentum behind a call for an independent commission to lead the redistricting process, the amendment failed to garner enough signatures to be placed on the ballot for voters. As a result, Democrats drew the state’s new congressional districts, likely giving them an edge in upcoming elections. (Read more about Nevada redistricting here!)

Clark county is buoyed by the support of labor unions. Nevada’s Culinary Union represents nearly 60,000 hospitality workers in the area and actively coordinates with other area unions for political advocacy. The makeup of the Culinary Union is also uniquely diverse: members hail from 178 different countries, speak more than 40 different languages and nearly 80% are Latine, Asian or Black.

Donald Trump provided a unique opportunity for Nevada Democrats due to his bitter relationship with the Culinary Union. Donald Trump’s Vegas hotel, the Trump International Hotel, originally opened without a union contract. The Culinary Union filed a representation petition with the hotel, resulting in a long legal battle involving the National Labor Relations Board. Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president while the unionization campaign was taking place in 2015. The Culinary Union then waged a full-on war against the candidate and used this labor dispute to effectively mobilize their members against Trump and his allies in recent years. Assuming that Donald Trump remains the figurehead of the party, don’t expect things to shift. If Republicans are able to excise Trumpism from their party (which seems more and more unlikely with every passing day), then the Culinary Union may cool off, giving Republicans an opening in future statewide elections.

Meanwhile, continued Democratic success in Washoe county, home to Reno, helped secure the state for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Washoe had previously voted for every Republican presidential candidate between 1964 and 2008, helping secure the statewide win for all except Bob Dole and George H. W. Bush (partly due to strong third-party showings in the 1992 and 1996 elections.) This pattern was upended by Barack Obama in 2008 and the county has voted for Democratic candidates ever since. Many point to the recent influx of California residents (Reno is barely 4 hours away from the populous San Francisco Bay Area) as to why the county as seen a shift toward the left.

“It’s a growing state. The state itself is changing. The electorate is changing: It’s moving more left because it is so diverse and there are so many people moving in from out of state.”

- Shaun Navarro, co-chair of the Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America chapter

Leftover Links

• More from Battleground: See how Nevada Democrats fared in redistricting.
• Check out this brilliantly written academic paper by Ruben J. Garcia on “Politically Engaged Unionism” in Las Vegas
• Will a rural Nevada county rename one of its roads after Donald Trump?
• Dive into the “Political History of Nevada,” a hefty reference document prepared by the Nevada Secretary of State.