Spirits were high as a long line snaked between slot machines, filling the floor of the Casino Fandango in Carson City.
Caucus goers in the back of the line waited over an hour. Many were participating in the process for the first time. Almost everyone was looking forward to casting their ballot for former President Donald Trump.
Karen Gonzalez recently moved back to Nevada from California, she said partially due to stricter COVID-19-related closures in California. When she arrived, she switched her party affiliation to Republican because she wanted to see change.
“I’m looking at policies with the groceries, the groceries are really hurting Americans like myself. I have no savings,” Gonzalez said. “I just feel like it’s so difficult to survive right now. It takes our entire household working in order to barely make it.”
Paul Strasser is the former Carson City Republican Chair. He said he’s never seen the caucus line this long. The only candidate left facing Trump was longshot Ryan Binkley.
“It’s almost a foregone conclusion,” Strasser said. “I like the thought of this election cycle that we’re showing the united front, not a fractured, nitpicking, as traditionally there is when there’s a large contingent of people.”
There were 12 precincts at this location. Voting took place for nearly three hours. Afterward, the cardboard ballot boxes sealed with red tape were distributed to tables separated by precinct to be counted by caucus goers.
The Associated Press had declared Trump the winner even before counting began. KUNR was told to leave when counting took place.
More than 1,000 caucus goers cast their ballot, overwhelmingly for Trump, according to chair Susan Ruch. She said couldn’t share the totals, but was surprised that Binkley got support – likely from “Never Trumpers,” she said.
Ruch also said the caucus was smooth, and the largest issue they ran into was voters who thought they were registered Republican learning they were registered as nonpartisan.
“We had a provisional ballot for them,” Rue said. “We were not going to turn anybody away. We do not want to disenfranchise people.”
However, according to the Nevada GOP’s rules, voters had to be registered Republican at least a month in advance in order to participate in the caucus.
