Inflation Concerns Turn Voters Against Democrats in Blue Nevada

In Democratic-run Nevada, residents are cursing out Democratic canvassers over inflation’s impact on the state’s economy.

“You think I am going to vote for those Democrats after all they’ve done to ruin the economy?” a voter shouted at canvassers from the Culinary Workers Union in the working-class neighborhood of East Las Vegas last week, the New York Times reported Monday. The union represents thousands of housekeepers, bartenders, and cooks and has been the Democrats’ key ally in Nevada elections.

Democrats in Nevada, a longtime “symbolic linchpin” for the Democratic Party, are bracing for major losses in November’s election, according to the Times. Democrat incumbent senator Catherine Cortez Masto and governor Steve Sisolak are narrowly trailing their Republican challengers, according to a new poll by the Nevada Independent. The state’s three House Democrats also face vulnerable elections.

The Times reports that Nevada’s vulnerability reflects a national challenge for Democrats: Voters, especially working-class and Latino voters whom Democrats traditionally count on, are more concerned about inflation and the economy than any other issue.

“There is a significant amount of nervousness and fear about the economy and especially about the cost of housing. Your gas costs more, your rent costs more,” Ted Pappageorge, the secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, told the Times. “Working families are hurting.”

John Ashbrook, a consultant for the campaign of Adam Laxalt, Cortez Masto’s Republican Senate opponent, told the Times that inflation frustrations “created an electorate that simply wants change.” Republican and independent voters make up 60 percent of the Nevada electorate.

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