Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023
Do Nevada Democrats typically lose 15 of the state’s 17 counties in elections?
State politics in Nevada reflect the national trend of Democrats winning the urban vote and losing the rural vote.
Nevada’s two most populous counties are Clark County in the southernmost part of the state and Washoe County in the northwest, which have populations of about 2.3 million and 486,000, respectively. Together, they make up almost 89% of Nevada’s population, according to 2020 U.S. Census data.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats won the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial votes by significant margins in Clark County, and more modest margins in Washoe County. In contrast, Democrats only received about a third of the rural vote in both races.
Maps of previous election results from 2020, 2018 and 2016 show similar outcomes, with Washoe and Clark counties in blue bookending Nevada’s 15 remaining red counties.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Brookings Blue metros, red state politics in the 2022 Nevada midterm elections
- US Census Nevada: 2020 Census
- Politico Nevada presidential results: 2020
- Politico Nevada presidential results: 2018
- Politico Nevada presidential results: 2016
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