Bernie Sanders heads into Saturday’s Nevada caucuses as frontrunner, according to polls, despite signs of voter misgivings in the state about the self-declared democratic socialist’s “Medicare for All” healthcare policy.
Mr Sanders came out narrowly on top in New Hampshire this month after losing Iowa to Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, by a razor-thin margin.
But he was dealt a blow in Nevada — scene of the third Democratic primary contest — last week when the influential Culinary Union Local 226 distributed a flyer to 60,000 hospitality workers warning that the Vermont senator would “end culinary healthcare”.
Some of Mr Sanders’ supporters responded by lashing out at the union’s top officials, according to the Nevada Independent, a local newspaper, sending them threatening phone calls, emails and tweets calling them “bitches” and “evil, entitled assholes”.
Former vice-president Joe Biden, who desperately needs to recover ground in Nevada after performing poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, used the issue to batter Mr Sanders on Sunday. “If any of my supporters did that, I’d disown them. Flat disown them,” Mr Biden told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Mr Sanders, whose campaign has long struggled with accusations that it has not done enough to rein in its more strident supporters on social media, said in a statement on Thursday: “Harassment of all forms is unacceptable to me, and we urge supporters of all campaigns not to engage in bullying or ugly personal attacks.”
Many unions across the US have taken issue with Mr Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposals, which would effectively eliminate private health insurance in America. Organised Labour has historically negotiated for generous healthcare packages, often at the expense of salary increases, and many union leaders, not just in Nevada, have raised concerns that Mr Sanders’ proposals would spell the end of their hard-fought benefits.
You know, no one should go after working people for wanting to defend and grow what they have earned, and it’s a key point of difference at the policy level between me and Senator Sanders.
Pete Buttigieg
On Sunday, Mr Buttigieg also took aim at Mr Sanders over healthcare.
“You know, no one should go after working people for wanting to defend and grow what they have earned, and it’s a key point of difference at the policy level between me and Senator Sanders,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. Mr Buttigieg favours an expansion of the existing Affordable Care Act, with a “public option” that competes against private plans.
The Nevada caucuses are seen as a crucial early test of candidates’ appeal to a more diverse electorate. The overwhelming majority of Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire are white, while nearly 30 per cent of Nevadans are Latino and another 10 per cent are black. Nevada also has a fast-growing Asian-American population, including many Filipino-Americans in the Las Vegas area.
A Las Vegas Review-Journal poll of likely caucus-goers, published on Friday, showed Mr Sanders in first place in Nevada, on 25 per cent, followed by Mr Biden on 18 per cent and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren on 13 per cent. Billionaire activist Tom Steyer had 11 per cent and Mr Buttigieg and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar had 10 per cent apiece. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
Mr Sanders has poured resources into Nevada in recent months, spending money on advertising campaigns and building up sizeable teams of grassroots organisers and volunteers. The 78-year-old senator has strong support among young Latino voters.
The decision of the culinary union — whose endorsement helped Barack Obama to win the Nevada caucuses in 2008 against Hillary Clinton — not to back a candidate this time is not just a blow to Mr Sanders. It was “clearly a let-down” for Mr Biden, who has counted on union support, according to Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist who used to be a top aide to former Nevada senator Harry Reid.
The former vice-president, who was once seen as the odds-on favourite to take on Donald Trump, finished a disappointing fourth and fifth in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively. Like Ms Warren — who finished third in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire — Mr Biden is looking to stage a comeback in Nevada.
“[Ms Warren] really needs to do well here,” said Jon Ralston, editor of the Nevada Independent. “To some extent, this is Biden’s last stand here too.”
Mr Biden’s weak showing so far has been owing in part to more moderate Democratic voters supporting Mr Buttigieg or Ms Klobuchar instead. But many strategists say those candidates will struggle for similar success in Nevada, especially given they have spent relatively little time in the state and national opinion polls show they have low levels of support with voters of colour.
But Mr Ralston said pundits should not “underestimate” Mr Buttigieg’s chances in the state, noting that the former mayor’s organisation is “formidable”. The Buttigieg campaign said last week that it was doubling its operation in Nevada and ramped up television advertising with an ad that took aim at Mr Sanders’ “Medicare for All” and another Spanish-language ad to appeal to the state’s Latino voters.
Mr Buttigieg came in second in New Hampshire and leads the Democratic field in terms of delegates heading into the party’s nominating convention in Milwaukee this summer.
Megan Jones, a Las Vegas-based Democratic strategist who worked for the Kamala Harris campaign, said candidates would not be able to rely on “momentum” from early voting states.
“[Nevada voters] have lives, they are trying to put their food on the table,” she said. “When some candidates come to Nevada, they make an assumption that [voters] have listened to everything that has happened in Iowa and New Hampshire, and they have not.”
