Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada, where she campaigned actively to secure a victory. (AP Photo/John Locher)LAS VEGAS — Hillary Clinton beat out rival Bernie Sanders to win the Nevada caucuses after a frenetic, fast-paced final week of campaigning in the state.
“Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other,” Clinton said at her victory party in the Caesar’s Palace casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Bill Clinton at her side. Clinton outlined the problems facing the country, from “crumbling classes” in South Carolina to the toxic water in Flint, Mich.
“Americans are right to be angry, but we’re also hungry for real solutions,” she said. Sanders outspent her 2 to 1 on TV ads in the state, and managed to build up his campaign operation to rival hers in size. But Team Clinton, who had been in the state since April under the direction of Barack Obama alum Emmy Ruiz, was better organized. Clinton’s female-focused outreach strategy in Nevada paid off, with exit polls showing Clinton winning among women by 16 percentage points, reversing the embarrassing New Hampshire trend of women choosing Bernie. Clinton once led the state by large margins, but a poll last week showed she and Sanders were in in a dead heat. The former secretary of state cancelled a campaign rally in Florida this week and spent an extra day campaigning in Nevada.
Her high-profile surrogates, including actress Eva Longoria and cabinet members Tom Perez and Ken Salazar, flooded the state and held multiple events every day, out-campaigning Sanders’ team.
“We knew that the race was going to be tight and we wanted to make sure that we left nothing on the field,” said Jorge Neri, Clinton’s Nevada field organizer. Female voters who flocked to a casino caucus site Saturday morning said they liked Sanders but ultimately sided with Clinton, in part because they believed she would understand their issues better than Sanders.
“First of all, she’s a woman; she will understand a woman’s needs,” said Fernanda Breciado, 55, a housekeeping supervisor at Caesar’s Palace who was voting during her lunch break. “She has the support of the greatest president,” she added, referring to Bill Clinton.
Jennifer Palmieri, a Clinton spokeswoman, said Hillary’s performance with women was good news. “It’s one state, it’s one race, but that’s pretty good,” she said. “We understand we have work to do with white men.”
The state brought out tension between the two candidates. On Thursday, an exhausted-looking Sanders and Clinton crossed paths at a town hall focused on immigration issues in Las Vegas. Clinton poked at Sanders’ earlier criticism of Obama and her husband, Bill Clinton. “Maybe it’s that Sen. Sanders wasn’t really a Democrat until he decided to run for president. He doesn’t know what the last two Democratic presidents did,” she said as the crowd booed. In an interview with BET later, Sanders suggested Clinton was acting as if she liked Obama merely to pander to black voters. If Sanders could have pulled out a victory in Nevada, it would have gone a long way to silence critics who say he can only win among white voters, and lacks the broad appeal to be the party’s nominee.
Entrance polls found that black voters went 3 to 1 to Clinton, spelling trouble for Sanders in the slate of Southern primaries coming up. In an email to backers, Sanders argued that even in losing the state, he had proven he could do well among a diverse pool of voters. “Nevada was supposed to be a state ‘tailor-made’ for the Clinton campaign, and a place she once led by almost 40 points,” he said. “But today we sent a message that will stun the political and financial establishment of this country: Our campaign can win anywhere.”
Top Clinton backers said they believed the victory is a game-changer for their candidate. “This victory had to overcome the momentum Sanders got in New Hampshire and the spin from the pundits,” said Robert Zimmerman, a Clinton fundraiser and Democratic National Committee member. “It really speaks to Hillary Clinton’s message and also the strength of their campaign organization.”