Prostitution, gambling, gun ownership – Nevada is considered a den of sin in the USA and is an important swing state in the presidential election. Citizens are concerned about one thing above all else: how expensive food has become.
A Thursday afternoon in front of a Walmart Supercenter in Reno, northeastern Nevada. Customers stream in and out of the huge supermarket, their shopping carts are filled with large packs of cereal, toast and milk. No matter who you ask – the Air Force veteran, the mother of three, the 80-year-old retiree – they all have the same concern.
Everything has become significantly more expensive, says Marielle, a woman with long brown hair and glasses: the gas, the groceries, “let’s not even talk about the diapers.” The 24-year-old was born here in northeastern Nevada and works in customer service for a company, carrying her two-year-old daughter in her arms. Marielle says inflation is her most important issue in the upcoming presidential election, and she will be voting for the first time in November. For whom, she doesn’t yet know. Her husband wants to vote for Donald Trump, also because inflation wasn’t that high under him.
$1,300 a month for groceries
The economy, particularly high inflation, could decide the presidential election. There is no issue that concerns voters anymore This is what national surveys show.
Prices have risen enormously, especially in Nevada, an important swing state. Since President Joe Biden’s administration took office in January 2021, inflation has been cumulatively 22 percent, according to the bipartisan Congressional Economic Committee calculated. The price of gasoline in Nevada has increased by 47 percent during this time, and rental costs have increased by 22 percent.
Food prices have also skyrocketed. Compared to January 2021, the average household pays $153 more per month for supermarket purchases. In total, he spends almost $1,300 on it. That’s a lot of money in a member state in which the salary before taxes averages $4,600. This makes Nevada the second highest food cost in the country; only California, which is much wealthier, is even more expensive.
“We had to cut back a lot,” says a pregnant housewife who was heaving a stroller out of her minivan in front of Walmart. Her two-year-old son crawled in, the four-year-old stayed at home. You now buy less food. And she tries to spread the food over more days: more pasta and a maximum of one piece of cheese for the children per day, “even if they beg for a second one.”
Michelin, 39 years old, with short blonde hair and sports clothes, says it’s “crazy” how much the food costs now. Her boys drink gallons of milk. “A gallon (around 3.8 liters) costs four dollars today, whereas it used to cost two. Sometimes I say, ‘Hey, can you switch to water?'” What’s more, Nevada’s unemployment rate, at 5.5 percent, is the second highest in the country, behind Washington State.
Activities frowned upon as a business model
The economic worries in Nevada could possibly decide the presidential election. Because if Harris and Trump are actually in a neck-and-neck race, the “Silver State” could possibly become the kingmaker with its six electoral votes.
Nevada is known less as a political stronghold and more as a “vice state”, the sin state of the USA. Prostitution, gambling, free alcohol consumption – things that are partially or completely forbidden in other parts of the country are allowed here.
It was a conscious decision that once ensured Nevada’s survival. When the silver boom of the 19th century was over and the miners left, the desert state struggled for survival in the 1930s. At that time, just 91,000 citizens lived in an area the size of Great Britain. Nevada was by far the least populated state in the USA.
The state government desperately looked for sources of income – and tried new things. Nevada was the first and, to date, almost the only state to legalize gambling and prostitution. On top of that, the most lax laws on marriage and divorce were introduced. Brothels, casinos and pawnshops sprouted up. Reno became an entertainment mecca in the north and Las Vegas in the south. The strategy worked: the tax revenue from gambling is so generous that to this day the state has refrained from collecting income, company and inheritance taxes.
Nevada now has 3.1 million inhabitants. The vast majority live in the south in the greater Las Vegas area, many also in the north around Reno. If you leave the cities, Nevada quickly becomes very lonely and dry. Nowhere in the USA does it rain less, and in many places you are not allowed to build because the federal government owns a good 80 percent of the land area. It’s not for nothing that Highway 50, which winds its way through Nevada, is nicknamed the loneliest road in America.
Nevada is politically more balanced than almost any other state
Many Nevadans are still proud of this “Wild West” character to this day. This is also reflected in voting behavior. Nevada is the only state where voters can check the “none of the above candidates” box if no one on the ballot appeals to them. In the Republican primary in February, this “nobody” won ahead of candidate Nikki Haley.
Since the founding of the state in 1864, the Republican presidential candidate has been elected here 20 times, the Democratic candidate 19 times and a third party candidate once. “It is the epitome of a swing state,” says political scientist Thom Reilly from Arizona State University, who worked in Nevada for decades. “Citizens have no loyalty to a single party, their behavior is difficult to predict.” Nevada’s congressional delegations have also been remarkably evenly composed of Democrats and Republicans over time, as has the state government.
For marketing expert Pat Cantwell, both Republicans and Democrats have become too extreme.
Citizens here don’t like to be told what to do. Accordingly, about the same number of voters describe themselves as “independents”, i.e. those without a party, as well as as Republicans and as Democrats.
Pat Cantwell is one of the non-partisans. The 65-year-old works in Reno as an advertising manager for a media company and is originally from New York. At an evening event at the local chamber of commerce, he explains that he used to belong to the Republicans; Today he doesn’t feel like he belongs to any party. “Both sides have become too extreme.”
As he says this, Cantwell turns around several times, making sure none of the guests are listening. “I try not to talk about politics in private,” he explains. It happens again and again that people at parties after a glass of wine epically express their political opinions, be it pro-Harris or pro-Trump. “I don’t want to hear that at a private event.” He has also become estranged from a friend because of this.
What worries him most in the country? Cantwell thinks for a moment. Certainly the economy, but also the situation at the American southern border. Cantwell believes that Vice President Harris “could have acted more forcefully” when it came to securing the border – in fact, she was a bit too progressive for him. Nevertheless, he will vote for her in November. Because Cantwell knows Trump from the 1980s in New York City, “he scared me back then, and he still does today.”
Kara Pedroni has completely different plans. Pedroni, carefully made up and dyed blonde hair, was born and went to school in Reno and also studied for a few semesters at the local community college. Like 75 percent of the population in Nevada, the 45-year-old does not have a college degree.
Self-employed cleaner Kara Pedroni is confident that Donald Trump will get inflation back under control.
Pedroni has been working as a self-employed cleaner for several years, mainly cleaning Airbnb apartments in the neighboring tourist mecca of Lake Tahoe. On a free morning, she sits in a coffee shop in downtown Reno and details how she plans her income. She makes sure she earns just enough to pay the mortgage on her house. And at the same time so little that she is allowed to take advantage of Medicaid – the state health insurance for low earners. “On the free market, health insurance costs $700, so how am I supposed to afford that?” she says.
Pedroni complains about inflation. “I walk out of the supermarket with two bags in my hand and I paid $100 for them.” She jokingly pinches her hip and adds: “This figure is expensive.” She recently flew back to San Diego to go to the dentist across the Mexican border. “Airline tickets now cost twice as much as they did two years ago.” But Pedroni is afraid to pass on the increased cost of living to her customers. “I probably should, but I don’t want to risk losing a customer over $20.”
The approximately 280,000 residents of Reno do not have to pay state taxes, but they are suffering from the increased cost of living.
Six or seven years ago, under President Trump and before the corona pandemic, the economy was doing much better, she thinks. Pedroni voted for Trump in 2020 – and she wants to do it again in November. “Right now the economy is really scaring me.” She knows that inflation is a complex problem, but she is convinced: “Trump can fix it.”
Trade unions tip the scales
Whether Trump or Harris – historically, a few tens of thousands of votes often decide the outcome of the presidential election in Nevada. It is usually the unions that tip the scales, particularly the Culinary Union. It includes almost 60,000 hospitality workers, many of whom are of Hispanic or Asian descent. On election day, the union even organizes transport services for its members to the polls so that they can vote.
The Culinary Union came out in support of Harris this year, as did the local branch of the Teamstersthe truck drivers’ union. But In polls, Harris’ lead is currently melting away, she and Trump are practically the same in Nevada. It is completely unclear which direction the state will swing this time.
NZZ live event: Harris against Trump – showdown for the White House
The US elections have hardly ever been this turbulent. Former President Donald Trump polarizes like no other. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is replacing the senile Joe Biden, is politically more than pale.
October 30, 2024, 6:30 p.m., NZZ Foyer, Zurich, and online
Tickets and further information can be found here.
