This story was updated to include recent result tallies at 10:45 a.m. on Sunday.
LAS VEGAS —Sen. Bernie Sanders scored a decisive victory in the Nevada Caucuses Saturday, securing a large margin of support over his rivals.
The Associated Press called the race for Sanders Saturday afternoon. As of Sunday morning, with almost 50% of precincts reporting, he had 46.6% of the vote, according to the Washington Post.
After squeaking out a victory in New Hampshire and a top two finish in Iowa, Sanders solidified his position as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
As of early Sunday morning, Former Vice President Joe Biden was second with 19.2%, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was in third with 15.4%, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was forth, with 10.3%.
As caucus locations opened in Nevada, the Vermont senator was already in Texas, a key state to win on Super Tuesday, March 3. While giving a campaign speech in San Antonio, Texas, Sanders claimed victory in the caucuses.
“In Nevada we have just put together a multi-generation, a multi-racial, coalition which is not only going to win in Nevada, it’s going to sweep this country,” he said.
In RebAR, a hole in the wall north of the casinos and hotels of the downtown, Sanders supporters, campaign staff and volunteers cheered as the results came in Saturday evening.
Sanders had already started a tour of four rallies across Texas, but his absence did not bother supporters as they celebrated in Las Vegas.
Asked if he was irritated that Sanders had left Nevada as the results were coming in, Michael Clark, who had voted early said, “Oh god, no.”
Clark, who had supported Sanders in 2016, said he had briefly considered voting for Warren before returning to Sanders.
“He’s just so very consistent,” he said. “I like Warren, but I like Bernie more.”
The night before the caucuses, at a high energy rally in Las Vegas, Sanders had confidently projected victory — 24 hours before the results came in.
“A couple of weeks ago we won the popular vote in Iowa, last week we won the New Hampshire primary and tomorrow — if we come out in big numbers at 12 o’clock for the [Nevada] caucus — I think we are going to win here as well,” Sanders said Friday to loud cheers from the crowd of 2,020.
In 2016, Sanders lost Nevada by more than 5 points to former Secretary of State Hillary Clintion — 52.6% to 47.3% — and was heavily out performed in Clark County, home to the majority of the state’s population.
While it is difficult to compare 2016 to 2020, Sanders certainly outperformed his 2016 campaign.
Throughout Nevada, but particularly in Las Vegas, the Sanders campaign gambled on the Latino vote.
Ahead of the Feb. 22 contest, the Sanders campaign held a Spanish language caucus briefing for community members in East Las Vegas. In December 2019, weeks after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., endorsed Sanders for president, she held a town hall entirely in Spanish in Las Vegas in an attempt to reach non-English-speaking voters.
Early Saturday at a polling location in East Las Vegas, a predominantly Latino and working class neighborhood, Sanders’ campaign strategy was in full effect with more than 10 volunteers outside the community center, braving the rare Las Vegas rainstorm that soaked the city on and off throughout the day.
The rain began in earnest just as the caucus location was opening and the volunteers quickly produced umbrellas and shepherded people from their cars into the building.
Inside, many young caucus goers backed the Vermont senator.
“He’s for the people,’ said Elene Garcia, a 21-year-old student and first-time caucus goer, of why she was supporting Sanders. “I like that he wants good health care for everybody. My mom is in the Culinary Union and we have good benefits, but not everybody has those,” she said.
“I’m Hispanic and not all of us can vote, so I’m here for them,” Garcia said.
The Culinary Union 226, which represents 60,000 members in the hospitality industry in Nevada, decided against endorsing a candidate in the runup to the caucuses, and publicly criticized Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal.
According to CNN entrance polling of Hispanic voters, more than 50% were there to support Sanders. Biden, hovering around 13%, had the second highest level of support. Buttigieg was the only other candidate in double digits with 10%.
Gustavo Medrano, another 21-year-old first-time voter, said he favored Biden before he switched allegiances to the Vermont senator.
“I started leaning more toward Sanders when I sat down and watched the debates and all that and just the passion he put into it,” Medrano said. “He has passion for the people.”
Medrano added that he believed it would be a close contest, not dissimilar from New Hampshire or Iowa.
Maganey Osman, a university student, said as she waited in line to enter the large gymnasium that although her political identity does not completely align with Sanders’ self-described brand of Democratic socialism, she is “leaning towards it.”
“Bernie Sanders is for everyone,” Osman said. “I just think that Bernie would be a great president for our country.”
As the caucus began, it was clear that Sanders and Warren had the most support in the room. In the “first alignment” — when caucus-goers make their first candidate selection — only the senators from Vermont and Massachusetts met the 15% threshold. Sanders led his rival by nine points.
When the first round results were announced, large cheers erupted from Sanders supporters. Many supporters left after this first part of the process and before “final alignment” — in which second choice support is added to the tally — was recorded.
Sanders received no second preference additions, but Warren did and cheers erupted from people in her camp.
This year, for the first time, registered Democrats in Nevada were allowed to vote early. Tens of thousands did so in the earlier part of the week.
Before caucus locations opened Saturday, the Nevada State Democratic Party announced it had successfully tallied the 75,000 early votes that had been cast between Monday and Wednesday.
With these early voters included, Sanders claimed victory in the East Las Vegas caucus precinct, receiving 13 of the 27 state delegate equivalents. Warren was awarded 8 state delegate equivalents and Buttigieg was given 6.
Ahead of the South Carolina primary, Sanders is making a whirlwind tour of Super Tuesday states before making his final pitch to voters in the South.
After performing abysmally in South Carolina during the 2016 election and struggling to find support there in 2019, Sanders has gained momentum in recent weeks. Before the Nevada caucus, he was polling on average at 21%, just behind Biden for the lead.
