2020 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses
The 2020 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses took place on February 22, 2020, with early voting on February 14–18, and was the third nominating contest in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, following the New Hampshire primary the week before. The Nevada caucuses were a closed caucus, meaning that only registered Democrats could vote in this caucus. The state awarded 49 delegates towards the national convention, of which 36 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the caucuses.
Senator Bernie Sanders won the caucuses in a landslide,[3] with 46.8% of county convention delegates (CCDs) and 40.5% of the final popular vote alignment, with former vice president Joe Biden coming in second. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg[4] and senator Elizabeth Warren failed to cross the 15% threshold of county convention delegates (CCDs) required to earn statewide delegates. (Buttigieg did earn three delegates due to the fact that he received at least 15% of CCDs in at least one congressional district, despite falling short of the statewide threshold.)[5] This was the third presidential nominating contest in a row that Sanders topped the popular vote in, after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Of the 104,883 votes, more than 70,000 were cast early with ranked choice voting ballots.[6]
Analysis[edit]
Participation in the 2020 caucuses (105,195 initial alignment votes in the official count)[46] was 25% higher compared to the approximately 84,000 people who participated in the 2016 caucuses, but 4% less compared to the approximately 110,000 voters who participated in the 2008 caucuses.[28]
Entrance polls by CNN indicated that Sanders won nearly every gender, race, age, and education demographic group, except for African-Americans and voters over 65, where Biden won 38–28 and 29–12 respectively. He performed extremely well among younger voters, capturing 65% of voters in the 17–29 demographic and 56% of voters under 45 overall, showcasing his overwhelming strength with the youth vote. In terms of ideological preference, Sanders won handily among voters who identified as liberal (50%) and somewhat liberal (29%), whereas Biden won over moderate voters (25%). Sanders also won the state's population center of Clark County, which constituted 70% of all caucusgoers, with 49% of the vote.[47] In a break with Culinary Workers Union leadership who had previously come out against Sanders's Medicare for All plan, Sanders won several caucus precincts along the Las Vegas Strip, home to many hotel and casino workers who are members of the union.[48]
Sanders's landslide victory has been attributed in part to his intentional outreach to Latino communities coordinated by staff member Chuck Rocha, resulting in winning 53% of Latino voters,[49] who make up about 30% of Nevada's population.[50] Under Rocha's direction, the Sanders campaign focused heavily on mobilizing Latino voters, a historically low-turnout demographic group, by hiring 76 Latino staffers and spending over $3 million on Spanish-language advertising specifically crafted to cater to Latino issues in Nevada.[51]
Sanders's substantial margin of victory in Nevada, the first early state with a diverse electorate, helped ease concerns that his campaign had limited appeal among voters of color, as was the case in 2016. These concerns would arise again for Sanders when Joe Biden went on to win South Carolina, a state where 60% of the Democratic electorate is African-American, by a large margin.[52]
For Biden, his distant second-place finish in Nevada helped allay fears of a faltering campaign after two underwhelming results in Iowa and New Hampshire. With South Carolina being the next state to hold a primary, it would be this state that would make or break his campaign – or one that would cement Bernie Sanders' status as a frontrunner.[53]