A majority of Nevada voters said the country is headed in the wrong direction as they went to the polls Tuesday, a sentiment that helped propel Democrats to a sweep of pivotal races for Congress and the governor’s office, according to a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate.
AP VoteCast found that nearly 6 in 10 Nevada voters said the country is off track, while about 4 in 10 Nevada said it’s on the right path. A similar majority - 55 percent - had negative views of President Donald Trump.
That made Nevada a bright spot for Democrats in the midterm elections. U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, a first-term Democrat from the Las Vegas-area, ousted Republican Sen. Dean Heller, while Steve Sisolak became the first Democrat to win the governor’s office in nearly two decades.
Democrats also held two open Las Vegas-area congressional seats.
Here’s a snapshot of who voted and why in Nevada, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, an innovative nationwide survey of about 138,000 voters and nonvoters - including 3,423 voters and 617 nonvoters in Nevada - conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
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TOP ISSUES
Voters considered several issues to be important to their vote in this midterm election, with about one-quarter picking health care and one-quarter picking immigration as top concerns. About one-fifth identified the economy, while fewer said gun policy or the environment.
Fred Hoy, 61, of Reno, said he has diabetes and is on Medicaid, and that he’s been out of work for 13 years but is scraping by to pay his rent and care for several ill family members and friends. Hoy said he voted for Democrats because he’s worried Republicans will cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and threaten protections for pre-existing conditions.
“If we don’t have some kind of medical, we’re going to collapse as a nation,” he said.
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STATE OF THE ECONOMY
Nevada voters have a positive view of the nation’s economic outlook. Two-thirds said the nation’s economy is good; one-third said it’s not.
Nevada’s unemployment rate is 4.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the national rate remains at a five-decade low of 3.7 percent.
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TRUMP FACTOR
For 31 percent of Nevada voters, President Donald Trump was not a factor they considered while casting their votes. By comparison, 27 percent said a reason for their vote was to express support for Trump, and 40 percent said they voted to express opposition to Trump.
A majority of voters in Nevada had negative views of Trump: 54 percent said they disapprove of how he is handling his job as president, while 45 percent said they approve of Trump.
Reno resident Dan Lavely said he has voted for Republicans in the past but he refused to cast a ballot for any GOP candidates this time, primarily because of Trump.
Lavely, a service manager at a big-box corporate retailer in Sparks, says Trump hasn’t done anything to make his life better. The GOP tax bill was a “total joke - a one-time thing” that had no impact on him, he said. He has mixed feelings about immigration, but he said he doesn’t want to build a wall on or send 2,000 troops to the Mexican border.
The 62-year-old registered Democrat said he’s doing about the same financially under Trump as he did under former President Barack Obama.
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RACE FOR SENATE
Rosen dominated among self-identified liberals and Heller among conservatives, but moderates broke heavily for Rosen. Rosen also led among urban and suburban voters, while Heller carried those in small towns.
Heller appeared to lead his Democratic rival among white voters. Whites with a college education were divided in their support, and whites without a college degree supported Heller.
Rosen had a sizable advantage among black voters and also had a sizable advantage among Hispanic voters.
Voters under 45 supported Rosen; those ages 45 and older were split.
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RACE FOR GOVERNOR
Sisolak had a lead among women, while men slightly preferred his opponent, Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt.
Voters making more than $50,000 split, while those making less had a clear preference for the Democrat. Sisolak also ran ahead among voters under 45 and urban voters; small-town residents preferred the Republican. Older voters were split.
Black voters and Hispanic voters preferred Sisolak. White voters overall leaned toward Laxalt.
Whites without a college degree preferred Laxalt. White college graduates were divided in their support.
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CONTROL OF CONGRESS
Tuesday’s elections determined control of Congress in the final two years of Trump’s first term in office, and 7 in 10 voters said which party will hold control was very important as they considered their vote. Another 1 in 5 said it was somewhat important.
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STAYING AT HOME
In Nevada, about three-quarters of registered voters who chose not to vote in the midterm election were younger than 45. A wide share of those who did not vote - nearly 9 out of every 10 - did not have a college degree. About as many nonvoters were Democrats as Republicans.
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AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate in all 50 states conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey of 3,423 voters and 617 nonvoters in Nevada was conducted Oct. 29 to Nov. 6, concluding as polls close on Election Day. It combines interviews in English or Spanish with a random sample of registered voters drawn from state voter files and self-identified registered voters selected from opt-in online panels. Participants in the probability-based portion of the survey were contacted by phone and mail, and had the opportunity to take the survey by phone or online. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 2.0 percentage points. All surveys are subject to multiple sources of error, including from sampling, question wording and order, and nonresponse. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at http://www.ap.org/votecast .
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Online:
For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics
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AP writer Michelle Price in Las Vegas contributed.
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