Why the nation will be watching Nevada on Election Day - By George F. Will
LAS VEGAS
Nevada, which calls itself the “Battle Born State,” actually was born prematurely because of Republicans’ anxiety. Now, 152 years later, it again is a subject of their anxiety.
Entering 1864, Abraham Lincoln and his party were intensely, and reasonably, in doubt about his reelection. So, scrambling for every electorate vote, Republicans decided to conjure three from thin air — thin desert air. They began the process of admitting Nevada to the union, even though the 1860 Census said its population was 6,857, far short of the 60,000 ostensibly required for statehood. Nine days before the election, the Republican-controlled Congress made Nevada a state (although Gen. Sherman’s Sept. 2 capture of Atlanta probably guaranteed Lincoln’s victory).
On election night 2016, the nation’s attention might be focused on Nevada, where Republicans have their most promising, and probably their only realistic, chance to capture a Democratic Senate seat. Harry Reid, Senate minority leader, is retiring, and Republicans’ hopes of retaining their majority might depend on Joe Heck replacing Reid.
He is a strong candidate for his party, as his opponent is for hers. Catherine Cortez Masto is a former two-term state attorney general who won reelection even against the 2010 anti-Democratic wave. She would be the Senate’s first Latina.
Heck, an emergency room physician and a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, is a third-term congressman from the Las Vegas metropolitan area, where 75 percent of Nevada voters live. His district, where he defeated his 2014 Democratic opponent by 24.6 points, is 19 percent Hispanic and 16 percent Asian American.
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