In Las Vegas, the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union has a different approach. The union’s legion of cooks and waiters who campaign door to door are a key pillar of the so-called Reid Machine, the highly organized operation that delivered Democratic victories in Nevada for decades (and with a name that nods to the longtime Nevada senator Harry Reid, who died in 2021).
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Even as the union campaigned for Ms. Harris last fall, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, repeatedly warned Democrats that they were not focusing enough on affordability and were poised to lose Nevada. In an interview, he suggested the party had not received the message.
“The No. 1 issue was the economy, and nationally, Democrats were tone-deaf about that,” Mr. Pappageorge said, adding, “If the candidates are all lawyers and developers and managers, then maybe that’s part of the problem.”