PARADISE, Nevada — Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid criticized the media and presidential candidates for placing such a high value on first-in-the-nation caucus and primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, states that he says are too white and not representative of a general election population.
“I don’t think it matters what happens in Iowa,” Reid told reporters Sunday ahead of a “First in the West” event with 14 Democratic presidential candidates scheduled to speak. “[South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete] Buttigieg or someone else does okay in Iowa, that doesn’t mean a thing.”
Nevada on Feb. 22 will be the third state to hold a statewide nominating contest, a position in the primary lineup since 2008 that Reid helped secure. He argued that the state’s diverse population is better representative of the United States and noted that population centers in Western states are growing.
While about 60% of the U.S. population is white (non-Hispanic or Latino) compared to about 85% of Iowa’s population and 90% of New Hampshire’s, according to the Census Bureau. In Nevada, the number is about 48%.
Some Nevada Democrats have complained about being overlooked in media coverage about the primary process.
“You guys make too big a deal out of it,” Reid told reporters in the room of the focus on Iowa in particular. “Iowa and New Hampshire are just not indicative of what is going to happen.”
A set of CBS News/YouGov polls released Sunday finds that while Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are closely grouped in the top-tier in Iowa, Buttigieg is in a distant fourth place in Nevada with 9% support among likely caucus-goers, while Warren has 21%, Sanders has 23%, and Biden has 33%.
Party leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire have been put on the defensive in recent weeks against those discounting the states’ places in Democratic nominating contests, which are protected in party rules and in state laws.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has filed to be on primary ballots in some early voting states but has not yet announced an official bid, is expected to skip campaigning in early states and focus on Mar. 3 Super Tuesday states.
Former Housing Secretary Julian Castro last week said that Iowa and New Hampshire should no longer be the first states to vote. “Demographically, it’s not reflective of the United States as a whole, certainly not reflective of the Democratic Party, and I believe that other states should have their chance,” he said.
Those in favor of keeping the structure argue that voters in Iowa and New Hampshire take their commitment to vet candidates seriously. But longtime Reid aide Rebecca Lambe argued that lower-information voters in Nevada are a more important indicator of candidate strength.
“Not only do you have to have a message that appeals, you actually have to turn them out,” Lambe told reporters. “It’s really the first indicator of how strong a candidate and how viable they are in a general election contest.”
Lambe also mentioned that Nevada has a higher percentage of unionized voters than the national average, 14% compared to 10%, a group that Democratic candidates work hard to court.
