Kamala Harris (Culinary Union) AP-24004007819002
Kamala Harris told rallygoers in Las Vegas that her campaign was the “underdog” in the presidential race. K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

Nevada’s Reid Machine Is Facing a Major Test

Will labor chaos cut into one of the most proven Democratic operations in the country?

Kamala Harris told rallygoers in Las Vegas that her campaign was the “underdog” in the presidential race. K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

LAS VEGAS — Rep. Susie Lee was breaking down a potential Donald Trump win in Nevada to specific blocks and individual houses.

“I mean, he comes down to 10 votes a precinct, right?” she said in the Teamsters Local 14 union hall in Las Vegas. “Like I said, this will be a turnout election.”

The ground game is where Nevada Democrats make their mark. It’s a place where field is not a theory, it’s a kind of political religion — one established by the late Harry Reid. A spokesperson for the powerful Culinary Union local said in 2022, the field operation knocked on “more than half” of the Black and Latino doors and “more than a third” of AAPI doors in the entire state. These are the voters Harris will need to turn out big if she wants to win this state. The machine helped make Nevada the only swing state Hillary Clinton won in 2016. It helped hand the state to Joe Biden in 2020.