Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

election in nevada:

Katy Perry, LA mayor part of influx as early voting begins

Katy Perry Campaigns For Hillary Clinton

AP Photo/John Locher

Singer Katy Perry reacts for a selfie at a rally in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Las Vegas.

Updated Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016 | 10:35 a.m.

Early Voting Begins in Nevada

Singer Katy Perry speaks at a rally in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

Singer Katy Perry neatly summed up the importance of down-ballot voting at a rally this evening at UNLV: “We got a crew. We got a clique. We all run together.”

It was an appropriate message to cap off the first day of early voting in Nevada, where Republicans and Democrats are battling tooth-and-nail in presidential, U.S. Senate and congressional races.

Perry was in Las Vegas campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — for those who couldn’t tell from the “nasty woman” slogan emblazoned inside of a red heart on her white T-shirt, a reference to a comment made by Republican nominee Donald Trump at their debate at UNLV. Before the rally, Perry canvassed in UNLV’s dorms, checking with students to see whether they would be voting for Clinton.

Republicans don’t typically get as many flashy celebrity surrogates to make appearances for them, but that didn’t stop Trump’s Nevada campaign from playing off of Perry’s appearance. It fired back with a statement about her appearance filled with puns riffing on some of Perry’s best-known song titles.

Charles Munoz, Trump’s state director, said Clinton’s campaign has “not been a firework” and has faced the “roar of scandal” throughout her campaign, and that Nevadans “unconditionally” support change in Washington. (For the unfamiliar, “Firework, “Roar” and “Unconditionally” are three of Perry’s popular songs.)

Though they didn’t have the glitz of a Katy Perry on their side, volunteers were out knocking on doors of those the Republican Party has identified as likely early voters as part of a “Super Saturday” canvassing event.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Heck appeared with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at rallies in Reno and Elko. Although Trump won Nevada’s caucuses by a wide margin in February, Cruz won Elko County.

“For too many years, too many decades, Nevada has been struggling under Harry Reid — a left-wing Democratic senator who doesn’t listen to the priorities of the men and women of this great state,” Cruz said in Reno, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. “The next senator from Nevada is going to be Dr. Joe Heck. He’s going to fight for the freedoms of the men and women of this state.”

Congressman Mark Amodei, Trump’s Nevada chairman, called the presidential election a “pivotal time” in the country’s history.

“We can choose to continue moving in the same direction, a direction with which, frankly, three-quarters of the American people are currently not happy,” Amodei said in a statement today. “Alternatively, we can choose a new way. Beginning today Nevadans can help move our country in a new direction, by voting for Donald J. Trump for President."

This morning, Democrats bused in throngs of union workers from Southern California to Southern Nevada for a massive early-vote canvass. When the buses arrived just after 9 a.m. at the Ironworkers Local 433 training center in Henderson, local union members, Democratic politicians and candidates had already gathered for a rally to kick off the day of canvassing.

“I see ‘Hard Hats for Hillary,’” said retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, referring to the slogan on the union workers' T-shirts.

“I lead the hard heads for Hillary caucus,” he joked.

He stressed to the crowd the importance of electing the three women behind him on stage — Congresswoman Dina Titus, congressional candidate Jacky Rosen and U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto — as well as the nation’s first female president.

“You can make the difference,” Reid said. "Any close election we have in this community, you can make a difference.”

Reid said that while people may be tired of seeing ads on television and discussions on social media, the “old fashioned” personal touch of a door knock still can affect the election.

Reid and Cortez Masto said the stakes of the U.S. Senate election couldn’t be higher.

“This seat in the United States Senate is the pathway for the Democrats to take back the majority in the Senate,” Cortez Masto said, adding that encouraging Democrats to turn out for early voting would make all the difference.

Election Day is less than three weeks away, but Titus stressed to the crowd how much can change between now and then.

“If 30 minutes is a lifetime, 17 days is an eternity,” she said.

On the other side of town, voters celebrated the first day of early vote with a fiesta at the East Las Vegas Community Center, replete with a mariachi band and taco trucks. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made the trip to Las Vegas for the occasion.

Garcetti said in an interview that it was important for him to be out campaigning in California’s sister state, given how close the election is expected to be in Nevada.

A record-breaking 39,309 voters cast their ballots in Clark County on Saturday, the first day of early voting. In 2012, the turnout for the first day of early voting was 33,182.

Early voting continues until Nov. 4, and Election Day is Nov. 8. For information about where to early vote, visit the Clark County Election Department's website.

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