Donald Trump wins Nevada, AP projects
Nevada goes to Donald Trump, according to a projection by The Associated Press.
Trump's win will give Nevada's six electoral votes to Republicans for the first time since President George W. Bush carried it in 2004. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris made multiple campaign stops in the state this year. Most of Nevada's counties are rural and voted heavily for Trump in 2020. But Democrat Joe Biden that year won the two most populous counties of Washoe and Clark, the latter of which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of the state's residents.
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Trump clinched a second term early Wednesday when Wisconsin pushed him past the 270 electoral votes needed to win, so Nevada’s six electoral votes only added to the size of his victory: He now has 301 electoral votes and has won six of the seven battleground states. Only Arizona remains to be called.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage before speaking during a campaign rally at The Expo at World Market Center on Sept. 13, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Trib
Economy and immigration were two of the top issues that voters considered ahead of the presidential election.
Nevada is a crucial swing state
Nevada has played a key role in the last several elections, and this year was no different.
"One of the reasons Nevada tends to be so important is that we have close margins in terms of Republicans and Democrats performing in these statewide elections and a lot of it depends on each camp's ability to determine who comes out to vote, so it’s really a mobilization game," University of Nevada Las Vegas associate professor Rebecca Gill told FOX Television Stations.
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Nevada has one of the nation’s best track records as a presidential bellwether. The candidate who won the state has gone on to win the White House in 28 of the last 30 presidential elections. It voted for the losing candidate only in 1908, 1976 and 2016, when Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state. Democrats have won Nevada in the last four presidential elections.