“The early calendar is first and foremost about selecting a nominee who can win the White House,” said former Harry Reid staffer, longtime Nevada Democratic strategist, and, according to the party press release her quote came from, the “architect of the Reid Machine,” Rebecca Lambe.
In the same release, Yvanna Cancela, current chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford and former state senator whose political career, like Horsford’s, was propelled by the Culinary Union, said “Nevada’s expansive rural counties include small mining towns, cattle ranchers, and farmers — voters we can win here and beyond our state’s borders with the right outreach and message.”
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For all the effort by Democrats and allied organizations’ to etch mild bipartisan-friendly centrism into the Nevada Democratic psyche, the last time there was a competitive Democratic presidential contest in Nevada, in 2020, damned if it wasn’t won by Bernie Sanders. By a lot. The Culinary Union, a stalwart and powerful component of the Reid Machine, had endorsed Joe Biden that year.