Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Joe Biden is counting on Nevada... Has the pandemic hurt his chances?

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Mark Z Barabak -


On a blazing hot afternoon, two canvassers recently went door to door in a working-class neighbourhood of east Las Vegas, bearing masks, campaign fliers and the weight of Democratic worries.


Up and down stairs, across baking driveways, past thirsty lawns, Maria Magana and Atilano Salgado took turns asking voters in English, Spanish and a combination if they would support Joe Biden for president.


“Perfecto,” Magana responded when the answer was yes. Then she entered the information on a tablet cradled in her arm. Nevada — once reliably Republican but more recently Democratic — is something of a question mark in these closing weeks of the campaign. Polls taken before President Donald Trump’s hospitalisation with COVID- gave Biden a small but consistent lead over the incumbent, who narrowly lost the state four years ago.


However, the great strength of Democrats — the work of political foot soldiers like Magana, 45, who helps tidy the casino at the MGM Grand hotel, and Salgado, 35, a line cook at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen — has been significantly reduced as a result of the pandemic.


For months, Democrats failed to conduct the intensive voter registration and face-to-face conversations that helped flip the state in the late 2000s from red to blue. “People were sheltering at home. Nobody was going door to door. If you stood outside a supermarket, people would think you’re crazy,”said D Taylor, the head of Unite Here, the national parent of the local Culinary Union, which runs the state’s most powerful political operation. Although Democrats say they’re making up for lost time — using measures that ensure it’s safe again to knock on doors and finding creative means of engaging voters on social media and other outlets — they also say the contest is closer in Nevada than is comfortable. Privately, they fret over Biden’s lack of personal visibility in the state — he has not been to Nevada since campaigning in February ahead of its caucuses — even as they condemn Trump for holding large-scale rallies last month in Reno and Las Vegas. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, held a drive-in voter mobilisation event in Las Vegas on Friday. Republicans say Democrats have good cause for concern. “Nevada’s been a tough state for us going back 16 years,” said Rick Gorka, a national Republican Party spokesman who served as a Las Vegas-based strategist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. — dpa


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