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Why Nevada Latinos Are Losing Faith in Government

12 Min Read

Las Vegas is the most famous Although it’s famous for its glitzy casinos along the Strip, it’s also a constant political battleground. That’s partly because the region is a transitional region within a transition state, a place where people move in and out rapidly and adds new voters each election cycle.

The instability is compounded by the fact that the state’s demographics skew young and the number of new voter registrations continues to rise. Much of that increase is due to Hispanic voters, who make up more than 20 percent of Nevada voters.

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Nevada Democrats have won the state for nearly two decades, making it an integral part of their path to the White House. But the Democratic Party’s popularity here has declined recently. Latino voters frequently cite the economy and housing as their top concerns, and many say they are deeply dissatisfied with the political parties they once supported.

sluggish economy

In Las Vegas, no issue is more important than the economy. Spend a few minutes talking to voters and they’ll tell you about the prices of groceries, gas, rent, electricity, etc., or all of the above.

Working-class voters are particularly concerned about the cost of housing, with renters struggling to keep up with monthly payments and an increasing number of people seeing homeownership as out of reach.

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Livier Maxwell, a 41-year-old stay-at-home mom, moved to Las Vegas from San Diego more than a decade ago. The main reason was that they believed the economic opportunities would be better. Here, her family can live comfortably only on her husband’s salary.

Maxwell said she plans to vote enthusiastically for former President Donald J. Trump this year because she believes he will help improve the economy.

“Things were better for me when he was president. There was more money in the bank,” she said.

The pandemic hit Las Vegas particularly hard, with casinos on the Strip closed for months in 2020 and an economy dependent on tourism ground to a halt. Although the situation has improved dramatically since four years ago, when about 90% of the members of the powerful Culinary Union were unemployed, many workers say they have not recovered.

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Suldenil Álvarez Loriga, 45, immigrated from Cuba nearly 10 years ago and came to Las Vegas after seeing the glitzy Strip on TV. But in recent years, Alvarez-Loriga has been shocked to find she has to work two or three jobs just to pay the bills.

“I don’t have time to see my family, so I have to work all the time,” she said. “But what other choice do we have?”

In recent weeks, Alvarez Loriga has joined other members of the Culinary Workers Union, including Jolene Reyes, who works at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, in door-to-door efforts to drum up support for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. is knocking.

“She understands what we’re going through and I think she’s going to make things better for people like us,” Reyes said.

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