Politics

Clinton Tries To Pull Out Win In Toss-Up Nevada Caucuses

February 20, 2016 / 2:04 PM EST / CBS Baltimore

ELKO, Nev. (AP) -- Hillary Clinton worked to pull out a victory in Nevada's caucuses on Saturday, seeking to undercut the headway of rival Bernie Sanders and boost her presidential bid as the campaign broadens to primary contests across the country.

Though Clinton installed staff on the ground last spring, Sanders' message of combating income inequality appeared to find fertile ground in recent weeks in a state where many voters are still struggling to rebound after years of double-digit unemployment. And significant spending on paid media and staff helped his campaign make inroads into the Latino and African-American communities, which make up a significant portion of the Democratic electorate in the state.

A Sanders victory would undercut one of Clinton's major campaign arguments: that the Vermont senator's insurgent campaign largely appeals to white liberals, a relatively narrow swath of the Democratic Party. Eight years ago, one-third of Democratic caucus-goers in Nevada were minority voters, a percentage that's far more representative of the country as a whole than mostly white Iowa and New Hampshire.

The candidates spent their final hours before the caucuses furiously trying to drive up turnout among their supporters.

Clinton made her way through a college campus, a youth employment program, a town-hall event with high school students and casino workers at Planet Hollywood in hopes of motivating the Las Vegas-area minority voters and union members who could give her the edge over Sanders.

"I need your help," Clinton told a supportive crowd on the eve of the caucuses.

Sanders jetted across the more sparsely populated northern region of the state on Friday -- a strategy designed to pick up more of the state's 23 delegates at stake Saturday. In 2008, Clinton won the popular vote in the state but then Illinois Sen. Barack Obama picked up one more delegate, due to the quirky nature of the caucuses.

Ending his night in suburban Las Vegas with a rally and concert featuring the band Cold War Kids, Sanders projected confidence, telling supporters, "I have a feeling, folks, we are going to make history tomorrow!" He said "10, 20, 30 years from now, people may well look back at what happened in Nevada and say this was the start of the political revolution."

Clinton's campaign has tried to lower expectations for her performance in the caucuses, which are notoriously difficult to predict due to the transient nature of the state's population and the fact that voters do not need to be registered as Democrats in advance to participate.

Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, ran her 2008 effort in Nevada. Clinton locked down some of the state's most experienced political hands even before announcing her campaign in April.

In recent months, Sanders has caught up: He's spent slightly more than Clinton on television and radio ads in the state, investing $4 million to her $3.6 million, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG, and has more staff on the ground.

After Nevada, the primary moves into South Carolina, which votes Feb. 27, and then into several Southern contests three days later, among other states voting on Super Tuesday. With Clinton holding a commanding lead among superdelegates, the party insiders who are influential in picking the nominee, Sanders must rack up some significant wins in the remaining contests to catch up.