As Republicans eye Nevada, the state's battleground status may come down to one man: Joe Biden

[TexasTowelie]

Note: I've skipped down in the article to the portion discussing Democrats since I don't believe that most members here are concerned about Trump and Trump rallies.

But two cycles of blue wave elections in Nevada — coupled with an increasingly non-white electorate — has left many political observers wondering if the Silver State is now permanently blue. Several electoral college forecasts project Nevada as a lean blue state, with the real battlegrounds in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona. Democrats aren’t taking Nevada’s newfound blueness as a foregone conclusion though, naming it as key state needed to take back the presidency, and neither are Republicans, who believe the other party has drifted so far left that it stands to alienate Nevada’s moderate voters in 2020.

A case in point: While Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive, is surging in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire is beginning to look like a race between her and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” it is the moderate former Vice President Joe Biden who is leading in Nevada. And, though the state went blue in 2018, even Republicans will acknowledge that Gov. Steve Sisolak and U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen are hardly liberal firebrands.

The general sense among the more than a dozen Republicans operatives, party leaders, current and former elected officials and Trump supporters interviewed by The Nevada Independent is that if the Democratic nominee is Warren or Sanders, Nevada is in play in 2020; if Biden clinches the nomination, maybe not.

“If Biden is able to keep his head above water long enough to make the entire run and get the nomination, I think Democrats will close ranks around him,” said former Gov. Bob List, a Republican who led the state in the early 1980s. “You’ll see, despite all of his gaffes and his weaknesses and the questions about him, I think he’d be a much stronger candidate in Nevada than anybody else in that field.”

Read the complete article: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/as-republicans-eye-nevada-the-states-battleground-status-may-come-down-to-one-man-joe-biden

[Cha]

1. Good to know.. Steady as you Go Joe!

Gracias, TexasT!

[sheshe2]

2. I most certainly will.

“If Biden is able to keep his head above water long enough to make the entire run and get the nomination, I think Democrats will close ranks around him,”

I will do it for any candidate that wins the primary. I expect the same of each and every candidate to do the same, just like Beto did the other day. When he dropped out, he rallied his supporters behind the eventual nominee. When the path is clear and it is not yours you drop out and back the winner. Anything else is unacceptable.

[kimbutgar]

3. I know at least 3 Californians who have retired to Nevada and vote blue

As California gets more expensive a lot of residents move to Nevada.

[boomer_wv]

4. hmm...

"New Hampshire is beginning to look like a race between her and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders"

That's a great observation other than Quinnipiac poll showing Biden ahead there today.

As for the article, If I were a republican operative, I'm not sure that I'm willing to put much of an investment into Virginia, Colorado, or Nevada. Given the shift in the suburbs that we have seen, Republicans know that to win they have to really run up the margins in rural areas, and they just don't have the numbers to do that in those states anymore. In 2016 and 2018 we saw the early vote in Nevada build such a lead for democrats that even huge turnout in rural areas on election day couldn't carry it for them.

[Gothmog]

5. Without Joe Biden, we will lose Nevada

I also feel that without Joe Biden as the nominee, Texas will not be a battleground state. I and a good number of other real democrats have been working for a long time to turn Texas blue. We made a great deal of progress in 2018 by flipping 12 state house seats and 2 congressional seats blue. If we can flip 9 more state house seats, we will control the Texas House of Representatives and be able to block the GOP from re-gerrymandering Texas. The DCCC and the State Party have identified six congressional districts that we can flip. There is a great deal of hope that we can defeat John Cornyn and pick up a Senate seat

If Biden is not the nominee, Texas will not be a battleground state. We can forget about picking up any additional house seats or Cornyn's seat.

[UniteFightBack]

8. I honestly think we'll lose a lot more than just Nevada. nt

[PhoenixDem]

6. K&R n/t

[evertonfc]

7. if Warren or Sanders

is nominee, It takes Arizona and Florida off board, in my opinion and PA, MI, WI, NH, NV are all back in play, agian, for GOP.

[UniteFightBack]

9. Agreed. nt

[Green Line]

10. I agree

[Gothmog]

11. Agreed-