Reid’s ground operation exploited the fear and loathing of Trump to the max, and the early results bear it out: Whereas the Latino vote was 15 percent of the Nevada electorate in 2008 and 18 percent in 2012, data I have seen shows now it is up 30 percent from 2012 in early voting, meaning it could go above 20 percent of all voters by Tuesday evening.
“We’ve been focused on registering and building our Latino turnout from Day 1,” said one Democratic organizer. “That is paying dividends with Latino turnout up in the early vote and potentially up overall. In five out of the six highest Hispanic precincts, turnout in the early vote exceeded ’12.”
You can be sure one of those precincts included the Cardenas market.
Now, in virtually ensuring that Clinton has enough votes banked in early voting to take Nevada, Reid can ride off into the sunset knowing he has created perhaps the most fearsome political machine in history, one that will have delivered three successive victories to Democratic presidential nominees, saved himself in 2010 and probably filled his seat this cycle with his chosen successor. He might also have cemented Nevada’s bellwether status–only once in the last century (1976) has the state failed to vote for the eventual winner.
